§ 36. Mr. DREWEasked the Secretary of State for India whether he will give the House information in regard to the recent incident which occurred at Lucknow in which a hostile body of armed natives threatened to attack British residents?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for INDIA (Sir Samuel Hoare)So far as I am aware, no such incident as my hon. Friend describes has occurred. The impression that there has been such an incident originates, I believe, in a photograph illustrating an article published recently by a member of the India League Delegation which visited India last year. This photograph was actually taken on the occasion of a distribution of food and blankets to the poor during the tour of His Royal Highness the PrInce of Wales in India in 1921. Since then, it has appeared with various descriptions in varous countries. For example, it has appeared in a foreign paper as a gathering of Untouchables at a meeting in support of Mr. Gandhi's campaign for abolishing Untouchability, I believe that there is a deficiency of genuine pictures of anti-British demonstrations, just as there is also a shortage of genuine accounts of police excesses in India, and that ingenuity is resorted to in both cases.