HC Deb 22 April 1920 vol 128 cc592-3W
Lieut.-Commander KENWORTHY

asked the Secretary of State for India whether he will communicate to this House the terms of the message received by him in June last year from the chairman of directors of the Indian Newspaper Company, Limited, disproving the allegation made by the right hon. Gentleman in his speech on the East India Revenue Accounts on 23rd May, 1919, to the effect that Mr. B. G. Horniman had distributed his paper free to British soldiers in India in the hope of exciting disaffection and insubordination among them, and also dealing with other charges made by the right hon. Gentleman against Mr. Horniman?

Mr. MONTAGU

The hon. and gallant Member does not quote me correctly. The chairman of the board of directors of the Indian Newspaper Company certainly denied all knowledge of the free distribution of the "Bombay Chronicle" among British troops in the Bombay Presidency. I accept that denial. I never charged Mr. Horniman with being responsible for the distribution of the paper. But the paper certainly was distributed, and its contents certainly were such as to make its distribution dangerous. In view of that fact it does not seem to me to be relevant who was actually responsible for its distribution. The fact is that a dangerous situation was thereby created and the Bombay Government were compelled to take all necessary measures to meet it. The general attitude of Mr. Horniman during a time of crisis had given them much anxious consideration, and the particular fact to which the hon. and gallant Member refers was one among many which led them, with my full concurrence, to decide upon the measures which they considered essential in the public safety.

Lieut. -Commander KENWORTHY

asked the Secretary of State for India whether he would place before the House the materials on which the following charges made by him on 23rd May last in this House against Mr. B. G. Horniman, who was deported from India in April last, were based; that he began to use his paper in the middle of riots, resulting in loss of life, to spread and to fan the flame, he opened his columns to an accusation that British troops had been using soft-nosed bullets in the streets of Delhi, his paper was being distributed free to British troops in Bombay in the hope of exciting insubordination and disaffection, and that there was plenty of case to put before the courts; and whether he would grant an inquiry for the investigation of these charges either in India or in this country?

Mr. MONTAGU

I would refer the hon. and gallant Member to the answer which I gave yesterday on this same subject to the hon. Member for Thornbury (Mr. Rendall).

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