§ Mr. GEORGE GOOCHasked the Under-Secretary for India whether he will place in the library a copy of the Report for 1908 of the officiating Inspector-General of Police for Bengal?
The MASTER of ELIBANKI shall be glad to place a copy in the Library when a supply of copies is received.
§ Mr. MACKARNESSasked the Under-Secretary whether his attention has been called to the statement made in the Report for 1908 of the officiating Inspector-General of Police for Bengal, that the cases of murder were of the usual type, most of them being the outcome of intrigues, domestic differences, and land disputes; and whether the Secretary of State has any reason to doubt the accuracy of the Inspector-General's view in regard to the origin of these crimes?
The HON. MEMBERfurther asked whether his attention has been called to the statement in the Report for 1908 of the officiating Inspector-General of Police in Bengal, corroborated by the Lieutenant-Governor, that the increase in the cases of cognisable crime was to be attributed principally to the high price of food and the distress consequent thereon; and whether the Secretary of State has any reason to doubt the correctness of the conclusions arrived at by the Lieutenant-Governor and the Inspector-General?
The MASTER of ELIBANKThe Secretary of State has read the passages referred to, and he has no reason to doubt the correctness of the views therein expressed.
§ Mr. REESasked whether the Secretary of State's attention has been called to statements made by police and other authorities to the effect that the difficulties of the Indian police in Bengal in dealing with crime arise in a great measure from the fact that the educated classes do not co-operate with the force or render it proper assistance; and whether the Secretary of State has any official information to this effect?
The MASTER of ELIBANKThe Secretary of State has seen statements in the sense indicated; the hon. Member will find official information and a review of the facts by the local Government in the "Bengal Police Report for 1908," a copy of which the Secretary of State proposes, as I have just stated, to place in the Library.
§ Mr. MACKARNESSMay I ask whether it is a fact that the Report of the Police Commission appointed by Lord Curzon found that the want of co-operation on the part of the people of India was due to terrorism by the police, and the Commission found that they did not wonder that the people shrank from taking any part in the investigation of crime?
The MASTER of ELIBANKI am not sure that that is quite a correct summary of the Report. It is true that the Commission finds that the investigations on the part of the police were sometimes unnecessarily oppressive. If the hon. Member will allow me, I will quote two or three lines from the Report, and at the same time I regret to have to refer to certain characteristics of the Indian people:—
Neither do the Commission forget that much may be said in excuse for the misconduct of the police in the generally indifferent attitude of the people in respect of crime; in the encouragement of corruption by the readiness with which the people offer illegal gratifications; and in the low pay and poor prospects of tihe police service.In connection with that the Indian Government are endeavouring, both by increasing the pay and generally increasing the standard, to remedy that of which the Report speaks.
§ Mr. MACKARNESSMay I ask whether I am not perfectly correct in stating that the Report textucally states that there can be no wonder the people are said to be in terror of the police and to abstain from taking any part in the investigation of crime? Are not those the words of the Report?
§ Mr. REESMay I ask whether any assistance is given to the Government of India in improving the police by wholesale denunciations in this House of the character of those we have heard?
§ Mr. LUPTONMay I ask as to his remark about the character of the Indian people whether other people would not be liable to corrupt influences when they are willing to be corrupted?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThat is a general question on which hon. Members can form their own opinion.