HL Deb 27 July 1899 vol 75 cc469-80
* LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY

My Lords, I rise to ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they intend to take to prevent outrages by soldiers in India and the Colonies, such as that which caused the death of Mr. Talwattee; and to ask the Under Secretary for India whether, on the 14th February last, the India Office was entirely ignorant of the following cases:—

1898. January 16.—Poona, Arjuna shot by Gunner W. E. Piper.—Times of India.

1898. February 27.—Poona, Private McQuillan, Royal Irish Rifles, cut the throat of a dooly bearer.—Champion.

1898. March 23.—Satara, Mr. Rowecroft, a military officer, slapped on the face for insufficient salutation Mr. Sohoni, first assistant master Satara High School.—Mahratta.

1898. April 10.—Poona, two soldiers, Durham Light Infantry, drove through the cantonment firing an air gun, hit a tailor and a woman and a man.—Times of India.

1898. April 24.—Allahabad, H. L. C. Killick, East Surrey Regiment, out shooting peafowl with another, with Lee-Metford rifles and bullets. Killick cut Janak Singh's arm with a hunting knife, he bled to death.—Pioneer.

1989. May 7.—Karachi, five soldiers committed to sessions for wounding a policeman on duty.—Jagat Samachar.

1989. June 5.—Kussowlee, two European soldiers demanded liquor of a carter, on refusal threw cart, bullocks, and whiskey down the cliff.—Champion.

October 2.—Nasirabad, a punkah coolie attached to sergeants' mess of Royal Fusiliers, thrown into a well by two soldiers, September 25.—Champion.

1899. January 28.—Punjab, Asghar Aly, magistrate and civil servant, assaulted on Punjab Railway, December 31, 1898, by four commissioned officers.—Moslem Chronicle.

and to ask if the Indian Government will amend or remodel the Indian Government Resolution No. 4625, of August 31, 1897, and the Bombay Government Resolution No. 1507, Judicial Department, of March 2nd, 1899. I had hoped, my Lords, and I still hope, to be able to speak to this notice without uttering anything which could give any offence, and I had every reason to believe that I should receive a very satisfactory reply, for I was indebted to the noble Earl for an introduction to one of the military authorities at the India Office, and everything promised well for a reply which would have effaced the ill-effects of the reply given in this House in February last; and one which would encourage the efforts now made in India to diminish the evils complained of. But since Friday last a disturbing element has intervened, the Parliamentary and Permanent Under Secretaries have become for me Purdeh-Nisheen, and have retired into their zenanas; and I am obliged to infer that the Secretary of State is the disturbing cause, and that he has taken offence at the list of outrages on the notice Paper, coming as it does shortly after he had made a statement similar to that made in this House in February last. Should the reply to what I am going to say be less satisfactory than I expected, or than the inhabitants of India have a right to expect, I must point out how the saddle should be put upon the right horse, and that is the Secretary of State for India. After this caveat I can proceed as I originally intended. In again bringing this subject before the House, my first duty is to explain, not for your Lordships, but for those outside the House, and especially for the Press in India, that the noble Earl, the Under Secretary for India, is not to be blamed or made responsible for the brevity or curtness of the replies with which he is furnished by the India Office. I next desire to correct a statement which I made when I spoke in February last. I have received a letter saying that I had been misinformed, and that O'Hara, the Dum-Dum murderer, was not the same O'Hara as the one who was hung for shooting a sergeant and a soldier. This point has not much importance except for the sake of accuracy. If there were two O'Haras it destroys the point of what I said as to the escape from punishment of the Dum-Dum O'Hara, but it tells in favour of the military administration that the Dum-Dum O'Hara did not succeed in re-entering the Army after he had been dismissed from it. On the other hand, if there were two O'Haras, the military authorities have had two murderers to answer for instead of one. With regard to the list of outrages by soldiers in the course of last year I have been careful to word the notice so as not in any way to let it appear that the noble Earl was aware of any of these cases. I have put them down, because they must show that I am not complaining of an imaginary evil, and because even quite recently the Secretary of State for India seemed to believe that these cases were very rare. I am not disposed either to blame the India Office on account of its ignorance of these cases. I did not know of them all myself until a list was sent to me with newspaper extracts. The cases are spread over several newspapers, some of which are not received at the India Office; and I can exonerate the India Office at the cost of another Department. In well-conducted public offices, like the Foreign Office and Local Government, the clerks examine carefully the minutes of both Houses, and also the newspapers, and inform the heads of Departments and the Under Secretaries of anything that concerns their office. But I found on June 12th that a letter published in the Morning Post on the 7th had not yet attracted the attention of the Colonial Office, although it was headed, "Northern Railway, Ceylon." With regard to this list of cases the Barrackpore case in May, and that of the boy shot by Private Knight in August, have been omitted, as they have already been discussed in this House. These cases speak for themselves. I shall not take up the time by mentioning how many were acquitted or how few convicted. With reference to the third case, I will, with the leave of the House, read an extract from India, of April 21 this year:— Professor Augustus de Morgan had superintended the reprinting of a famous 'Treatise on Problems of Maxima and Minima solved by Algebra,' by Ramchandra, late teacher of science, Delhi College, a volume expressly stated to be reprinted by order of the honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company, for circulation in Europe and India, in acknowledgment of the merit of the author, and in testimony of the sense entertained of the importance of independent speculation as an instrument of national progress in India. De Morgan wrote to the Dean of Ely, about forty years ago, a letter (reprinted in India of December 23rd last): 'Had I been publishing independently of Government, I should perhaps have added what Ramchandra meant me to add—as I judge by his mode of telling it—that he had been beaten in the public road by a man in a British uniform, for not making a salaam as he passed. We talk a great deal about the ways and means of preserving India; but few know that this treatment of educated and civilised natives is always going on. We are constantly sending out to India a parcel of boobies who have no idea of the people they have to govern, and who will each of them make a few hundred malcontents among educated men who are reverenced by the mass of the people.'

I have not yet read of any redress having been offered to Mr. Asghar Aly, who was assaulted, and his eyes blackened, because he was going to a stationmaster to complain of the treatment he had met with from four commissioned officers, whose rank makes this a worse case than the others. I hope that the Under Secretary for India will have some satisfactory information to give on this point. In this year six outrages, three of them by soldiers, have taken place between March 23rd and April 9th, reported by the following papers:— Amrita Bazar Patrika., March 23rd.—"Toll Manager of Jhelum, telegraphed:—'Abused, assaulted, and ears pulled out by police inspector on demanding toll.' India, March 24th.—"Private Joyce, armed with a razor, cut at every native, four wounded. India, March 24th.—"Mr. J. N. Ross, in a dispute as to land, killed a native, one of the two whom he had arrested. Times of India, April 4th.—"Rangoon outrage on Church Parade by West Kent soldiers. Times of India, April 5.—"Gunner Love, separated from his two soldier friends, attempted rape of a village girl (by another report actually committed it); a scuffle ensued, the soldier's gun went off, and a man was killed. Amrita Bazar Patrika, April 9th.—"Mr. Cunning, manager of a tea estate, gave a cooly boy of twelve or thirteen a severe beating, from which he died.

Some newspaper, I cannot now remember or ascertain which, asked why I have not referred to outrages by civilians. The reason is that they are fewer, and that they do not cause the same ill will against the Government as those committed by soldiers. An Indian paper, however, reminds civilians that there is a Bengal Regulation X. of 1804, and Section 2 of XX. of 1825, under which civilians might be tried by court-martial. Those who ask for measures of prevention may fairly be expected to have some suggestions to make. In February last I suggested trying soldiers by court-martial instead of by juries, and this has been partly carried out by a military Order, dated Naini Tal, April 12th, 1899, No. 224, for cases of soldiers infringing rules relating to shooting passes. With regard to court martials, everything depends upon the colonels and other regimental officers being convinced that the Government is in earnest. If the telegram from Allahabad, published last Friday, July 21st, be correct, that conviction had been borne into the minds of the officers, as a severe sentence was passed. On the other hand, at Rangoon, as has been stated in some newspapers, a soldier was about to make a statement, but was stopped by a captain. I hope the Under Secretary will be able to give the House some information as to this point, and as to the progress of this inquiry by General Protheroe. The Government can show that it is in earnest by letting it be known that wherever a court martial trifles with justice, or acquits against the evidence, on the first occasion the colonel of that regiment will be put on half pay; and, on the next similar occurrence, the colonel will be dismissed the Service. In cases such as the Rangoon outrage, or the Kandy murder, confinement of the regiment to barracks and the barrack yard, and putting the officers under arrest until evidence was forthcoming, might secure the desired result. The next suggestion I would make is founded upon what took place when Mr. Talwattee was murdered, namely, that in future soldiers off duty, going or coming back from any games, and passing through a native quarter, should always be accompanied by a subaltern commissioned officer, and not, as in Mr. Talwattee's case, by a corporal only, who would be no restraint upon them. A third suggestion was impressed upon me by a friend, an ex-Bengal civilian, that the soldiers are greatly over fed during the hot season, and that if supplied with a less inflammatory diet outrages would be fewer. I have been reminded of what I had forgotten, that one of Mr. Kipling's stories in "Soldiers Three" says exactly the same thing; in it he says that a regiment sometimes gets hysterical like a girls' school. This is a reform which can be easily carried out by the regimental officers, and I have reason to believe that it has been considered by the military authorities. The fourth suggestion is contained in the notice. I will read to the House the Bombay Government Resolution mentioned in it, and your Lordships will be able to judge whether the warnings to villagers not to molest soldiers are not rather of a wolf and the lamb description. No doubt the soldiers have some warning in the rules issued to them, which I have already referred to, breaches of which are to be tried by court martial, but at present the Government Resolution seems one-sided. It is as follows:— BOMBAY GOVERNMENT RESOLUTION. No. 1,507. Judicial Department, 2nd March, 1899. District magistrates should cause it to be made known generally to villagers that British soldiers are permitted to go out shooting game in the district, but Government have issued instructions, so that any injury to the person or property of the inhabitants may be prevented. Should any person be aggrieved by the conduct of soldiers who may be out shooting, their proper course is to make a complaint to the magistrate empowered to receive it. They are not permitted to take the law into their own hands, or to molest or threaten soldiers who are not committing any offence, but are out shooting in accordance with the permission given to them. The village officers in each village should further be warned that they will be held responsible that these instructions are known and observed in the village. (Signed) G. G. H. FAWCETT, Under Secretary to Government.

I would now point out that there is great risk of accidents, if soldiers are allowed to shoot with Lee-Metford rifles; many parts of India are level plains, and more populous than this country. Shot guns ought to be kept for the good conduct soldiers allowed to shoot, to prevent accidents. A short time ago I met a Christian Bengalee in the house of a dignitary of the Church; he was not a convert but the son of a convert, and of a well-known Bengali family. I asked him what remedy he could suggest for these military outrages. He said: "Raise the moral tone of the soldiers." I replied that you must first raise the moral tone of the officers; and my Bengal civilian friend says, "You must raise the moral tone of the race." It is, perhaps, more the conceit that wants lower- ing, than the moral tone raising; a great country or a great people does not require a Tyrtæus. Oliver Goldsmith began it, and Mr. Rudyard Kipling has excelled in that line. I admire Mr. Kipling's writings very much, and though not acquainted with him, in order not to offend him, I shall use no words of my own, but quote a paragraph from the Bombay Indian Spectator criticising his last utterance: Egotism sometimes takes the form of excessive laudation of one's own race, and nationality, called by whatever name, the underlying feeling is the same—namely, one of supreme self-complacency. Mr. Rudyard Kipling's latest poem, 'The White Man's Burden,' is one of the most glaring instances of such egotism. It would seem, from this poem, that the white man has been carrying the burden of the whole universe on his shoulders at considerable self-sacrifice and discomfort to himself, and all for the benefit of the 'half devil, half child,' whom he has kindly brought under subjection. In a large sense the greatest burden-bearers in the world to-day are not the white men. It is the 'half devils, half children,' whose skins are browned or blackened by the sun that carry the twin artillery of the white man—his gin and his gun—wherewith he 'civilises' or shoots them down, according as they fall in with his ways or rebel against them.

It is no use preaching to alter the present feeling of the troops, and the best thing the Indian Government could do would be to offer Mr. Rudyard Kipling publication at their own expense, and a large reward for a novel which should tone down the song of the white man's burden. If Mr. Kipling should decline the task, the Indian Government has another and a better string to its bow, and might ask Mr. Thorburn to enter the lists, and show how Mr. Kipling's song lured on the Americans into a bog, and how almost every step taken by the United States since the beginning of their war with Spain has been dogged by retribution. Mr. Thorburn's recent novel, "Transgression," is as good as any other of the many good Indian novels. He is the Bengal civilian who got into a scrape at Simla last winter for taking at their word those who invited discussion on the Afridi campaign. As for the part of the question that concerns the colonies, Ceylon appears to be the only one requiring attention in this respect, for I have not heard of any military outrages in the Straits Settlements or in Hong Kong, probably because the Malays and the Chinese are better able to defend themselves. I hope that the Colonial Office will be ready to adopt in Ceylon whatsoever measures may be adopted by the Indian Government. I also hope that the Under Secretary for the Colonies will now be able to explain how it is that a clerk of the Magistrates' Court could be murdered in the town of Kandy by daylight, in the presence of his wife and sister-in-law and of witnesses, European and Singhalese; and why a soldier named Conolly, who has been accused, was allowed to leave Ceylon without being confronted with persons who might have recognised him and disproved his alibi. I hope that my noble friend, the Under Secretary for India, will recognise and admit that I have used very dispassionate, indeed colourless language, and have simply placed facts before the House. This I have been able to do, because I know that the Viceroy is bent upon preventing these outrages, and that some of the best officials in the India Office are now thoroughly awake to the necessity of action, and that apathy has been dispelled by the Sunday mid-day performances at Rangoon.

* THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (THE EARL OF ONSLOW)

My Lords, the noble Lord has placed on the Notice Paper a very long list of outrages alleged to have been committed by soldiers in India upon natives of that country, but the noble Lord has himself admitted that he has not made careful inquiry as to the acquittals and convictions in these cases. It would be an easy matter to compile a long list of cases drawn from newspaper reports of crimes committed by those of any profession among Her Majesty's subjects, drawn from the same class as soldiers, and I do not think the noble Lord has convinced your Lordships that soldiers in India are guilty of more crimes than the same class elsewhere, or any section drawn from the same class of the population. On the contrary, if the noble Lord will examine the returns which are laid on the Table of both Houses of Parliament he will find that since 1878 the proportion of courts-martial on soldiers for offences has been very steadily decreasing. In 1878 there were 114 at home and fifty-six abroad, while in 1897 the figures were only fifty-four at home and thirty-four abroad. I think your Lordships would agree that the conduct of Her Majesty's troops has been steadily improving and not deteriorating. With regard to the cases quoted by the noble Lord, two of them have been brought officially to the notice of the Secretary of State, and he has replied to questions about them in another place. As to shooting passes, they are most carefully guarded. Orders are only issued to men of extremely good character, and every precaution is taken to prevent any collision with the natives, and I can only say that all that is possible is done to prevent any outrages of the kind referred to by the noble Lord. They are extremely cowardly, and are repudiated by the men's comrades in the Army. There is no evidence that they are on the increase, though there may be isolated cases of violence. The Secretary of State at this moment is taking precautions to have himself informed of all cases which are brought before the Civil Courts against soldiers of the British Army. I will not go at length, into the proposals which the noble Lord made as to remedying what he complains of; I leave that to the Secretary for War. It will be for him to say whether he could justify such an increase in the number of officers as would be necessitated if a subaltern was in each case to accompany the men when they go through a native village. As to the suggestion that the British soldier should be given peas and porridge instead of beef and beer, the noble Marquess will be able to tell the House what effect that would have on recruiting for the Army.

THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY

My Lords, I was glad to hear from the Under Secretary, what I felt quite sure would be the case, that not only is there no reason to apprehend that there is a serious increase of crime committed by soldiers in the Army, but that in point of fact those crimes are tending to decrease; and, although there may possibly have been some instances, some particular cases, which everyone will greatly deplore, still there is no reason to believe or suggest that there is a general deterioration among our soldiers in India. It would be most unfortunate that such an erroneous impression should get abroad. No doubt circumstances may have occurred lately which required the attention of the Government. That attention I am sure—indeed, we have heard that it is so from the Under Secretary—will be given to the subject, and if it is found that there is any necessity for their interference, I must say I feel confident the Government will take any steps that may be necessary for the protection of the natives. I cannot, however, believe that the conduct of the soldiers in India is such as to give rise to any general apprehension of deterioration. On the contrary, I believe that their conduct deserves approbation.

*THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (The Marquess of LANSDOWNE)

My Lords, I rise merely to express my concurrence in what has been said by the noble Earl. We must all regard with the utmost reprobation acts of ill-usage perpetrated by Europeans, whether soldiers or civilians, upon the natives of India. It is for civilians a disgrace to the nation to which they belong; but when these acts are perpetrated by soldiers, they not only bring disgrace upon their country and countrymen, but upon the honourable profession of which they are members. I am glad to concur with what has been said by the Under-Secretary as to the improvement which has taken place in the conduct of our soldiers in this respect. I believe that at this moment acts which not many years ago—I do not speak of crimes or outrages, but acts of perhaps rough usage and brutality—would have been regarded as comparatively venial are now regarded as well by the military as by the civil community as deserving the utmost abhorrence and reprobation. As I believe that no pains are spared by the military authorities and the commanding officers to prevent these occurrences, I wish to join the protest of the noble Earl against such reports as those which the noble Lord has placed upon the Paper being regarded as authentic proof of the conduct of the troops in India. He has not told us as to these cases whether there were any legal proceedings, or whether, if there were, any convictions followed. I, for one, should certainly want to know a great deal more about these cases before I should be inclined to accept them as being authentic. My impression is that the amount of crime committed by British soldiers in India is steadily diminishing. Courts-martial are diminishing; and, in particular, the offence of drunkenness—so closely connected, I am afraid, with military crime—is showing a marked tendency to become less. As representing the War Office, I have only to add that no pains will be spared to prevent any act of ill-treatment being perpetrated by soldiers upon the native population of India.

House adjourned at half-past Seven of the clock, till To-morrow, half-past Ten of the clock.