§ 7. Mr. LAWSONasked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, seeing that the Egyptian electoral law as issued enacts that registration for the coming election must take place before the 16th of this month and that this constitutes the beginning of the electoral campaign, steps will be taken that political leaders and others imprisoned and exiled by the operation of British martial law are not kept in prison or exile during this period, and that Egyptian citizens are no longer arrested and imprisoned by British martial law without charge or trial during the electoral period?
§ Mr. McNEILLIn February, 1922, Lord Allenby gave a pledge that, should circumstances arise to delay the coming into force of the Act of Indemnity, he would be prepared to suspend the application of martial law in respect of all matters affecting the free exercise of the political rights of Egyptians, in order to facilitate the holding of elections. This pledge will be duly carried out when the appropriate moment arrives, if martial law has not by that time been already abolished.