§ Mr. LUNNasked the Secretary of State for India whether, in view of the resentment in India aroused by the methods adopted to repress rioting in the Punjab, the sensation caused by the resignation of his knighthood by Rabindranath Tagore, and the contradictory reports circulated as to the extent of the revolt and the measures carried out under martial law as well as to the causes loading up to the revolt, he will appoint a Commission, including eminent Indian non-officials, to investigate the causes, the extent, and the circumstances attending the suppression of the revolt; and if he will, pending the Inquiry, direct that the execution of all sentences passed by the courts-martial shall be suspended, and that the prisoners sentenced shall be treated as prisoners under remand?
§ Mr. MONTAGUI expect to hear shortly from the Viceroy as to the Inquiry which, as I have stated to the House, he intends to institute. In the meantime I cannot accept the suggestion that trials conducted by duly constituted Courts for offences of violence should be nullified pending inquiry as to the causes of disturbance. My hon. Friend may not be aware that under the Martial Law Ordinances the trials of serious offences have been conducted not by courts-martial, but by Commissions of three persons of whom two, at least, have served as judges for not less than three years.