§ Mr. KEIR HARDIEasked whether the inspector and acting superintendent of police, by name Babu Lall Mohan Guha and Maulvi Mazharul Huq, who were selected for distinction in the recent Birthday Honours List, are the same two officers whose conduct was commented upon by the High Court of Bengal last year; and, if so, whether they have been cleared from these reflections by the Report of the Commissioner appointed to investigate the charges made against them?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe answer to the first question is in the affirmative; as regards the second, I have already explained that it is impossible to make any statement on the subject pending the disposal of the suits that have been instituted raising substantially the same issues as were before the Commission. The Governor-General had to decide the 1921 matter on his own responsibility according to the practice in these matters, settled in correspondence between the Governor-General and the Secretary of State in 1860. On this occasion no fewer than 187 subordinate officials in various provinces were advanced. The Secretary of State refuses to suppose, and I trust my hon. Friend will agree, that the Governor-General meant to take part in any whitewashing of the police at the expense of the High Court. He must be assumed to have found nothing in the language of the High Court to cause him to interrupt the ordinary course of routine in conferring one of these minor titles upon men who, however they may emerge from the proceedings now pending, have hitherto served the Government with credit, and often at the risk of their lives.