§ 3. Colonel YATEasked whether permission has been given to Lajpat Rai, who was deported from the Punjab in 1907, as reported in the Rowlatt Report, 2175 to return from America to India; and, if so, was that permission given before the proclamation of the general amnesty on the passing of the Government of India Bill or after?
§ Mr. FISHERIt was in October last that the Secretary of State for India decided that a passport from America to India might be allowed to Lajpat Rai.
§ Colonel YATEWas this permission given before the Amnesty, or after?
§ Mr. FISHERI think it was given before, but the Amnesty does not really affect the question. Lajpat Rai was never prosecuted for sedition. A British Indian subject, Lajpat Rai, who has never been convicted in court and never prosecuted—it is true he was deported in 1907—and whose public writings, however objectionable they may seem, were cloaked by the assertion that he wished for constitutional changes in India, but was not asking for separation from the British Empire, desired to return to India. The Government of India decided that the passport should no longer be refused.