§ 21. Mr. J. BAKERasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether the Government of India are now prepared to advise the release of the remaining Gurdwara prisoners, considering that the controversy regarding the management of the Sikh shrines in the Punjab has been settled and the Gurdwara (Shrine) Act is working satisfactorily, and that these prisoners courted imprisonment with a view to bringing about the change that is embodied in that legislation?
§ Earl WINTERTONThe remaining prisoners now number no more than six. Any or all of them, except such as may be in prison for other reasons, could secure their release at once, I understand, by giving an undertaking to obey the provisions of the Gurdwara Act and to abstain from acts of violence in connection with questions of the control and management of Sikh shrines. In the absence of such an undertaking their continued detention is a safeguard for the continuance of the satisfactory working of the Act.