§ Mr. BAKERasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether, in view of the fact that the Repressive Laws Committee, presided over by the then Law Member of the Government of India, Dr. Tej Bahadur Sapru, and which included the then Home Member, Sir William Vincent, unanimously recommended to the Government of India that the Bengal Regulation III of 1818 should be limited to its original purpose, and that except on the inflammable frontier it should not be put into operation against British sub jects; that this recommendation was accepted by the Government of India in their Home Department Resolution No. 714, dated 1921, in which it was recorded that the Governor-General in Council had considered the Report and had decided to accept the recommendations made by the Committee; and that Sir Malcolm Hailey, Home Member, admitted that the Government of India had announced their intention of accepting these recommendations, he is prepared to see that these recommendations are carried out?
§ Mr. RICHARDSThe Committee's recommendation for the repeal of the Regulation was qualified by the recognition that grave emergencies might arise in which the Government would require a "weapon" of this nature and would have to ask the Legislature to provide it. The Government of India's announcement was that "steps will be taken as soon as may be to introduce legislation" to give effect to the Committee's recommendation. The details of this legislation involved references to the Secretary of State. Several other laws were, in fact, repealed. But before the provisions of the Bill to repeal Regulation III of 1818 were settled the Government of India decided that, in view of political conditions in India, the time was not suitable for carrying through the repeal. In August, 1922, and again in May, 1923, they informed the Secretary of State that this was the case, and that before proceeding with the legislation they would again refer to him and obtain his assent. The recrudescence of political murder 1935W plots in Bengal has necessitated the recent use of the Regulation. The Secretaries of State in the two preceding Governments were in agreement with the decision of the Government of India, and my Noble Friend is not disposed to press the Government of India in existing conditions in that country to take up immediately the question of alternative legislation.