§ 5. Mr. SWANasked the Secretary of State for India whether on 16th February troops and police were called in to disperse a meeting of strikers at Sholapur; whether the troops fired at the crowd when it did not disperse; how many casualties occurred among the native civilian population, men, women, and children; by whose orders were troops called in to disperse the strikers; and whether martial law had been proclaimed?
§ Mr. FISHERThe Secretary of State has received a short telegraphic report, from which it appears that it became necessary to fire on a mob at Sholapur, on the 16th February, after they had stoned the troops, and that six casualties 410 (probably deaths) occurred among the mob. The assistance of troops was presumably invoked by the civil authorities under the ordinary law. Martia law was not proclaimed
§ Mr. FISHERIt was a strike at a Bombay mill owned by some English firm