§ Brigadier-General SURTEESasked the Secretary of State for India if he will lay 2553W upon the Table, before this House discusses the case of General Dyer, copies of all memorials, protests, and declarations sent by Anglo-Indians to the Viceroy and himself regarding General Dyer?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe only message of the kind that I can trace having received is as follows:—
Cablegram from the European Association of India to the President. Received in London, 9th June:—'The Council of the European Association expresses indignation at the dispatches of the Secretary of State and the Government of India on the Hunter Committee's Report. The Council consider the situation in India from 1918 onwards to be much more dangerous than is indicated by that Report, and consider that the Government of India and the Secretary of State have subordinated justice to political expediency. They consider that General Dyer was absolutely justified at Amritsar in considering the whole situation in India and that therefore the doctrine of minimum force does not apply; that General Dyer's action stopped a revolution; that the refusal of Government to support its officers is destructive of sound government, and will place all officers in an impossible position in any emergency in which responsibility has to be undertaken. The Council asks, therefore, that General Dyer should be exonerated from all blame, and should suffer no loss of rank or emoluments, and that Government's proposal to punish the officers who suppressed the rebellion shall be abandoned.'Similar messages addressed to the Viceroy would not necessarily be forwarded to me.