§ Mr. WELLOCKasked the Under-Secretary of State for India if he will give details of the causes of the disturbances which took place in Mirzapur Park, Calcutta, on Monday last; and of the arrest of Mr. Gandhi and Dr. K. S. Roy?
§ Earl WINTERTONMr. Gandhi was not arrested. The facts are that in view of an announcement in the Press that578W a meeting was to be held in a public park in Calcutta on the evening of 4th March to burn foreign cloths, the Government of Bengal caused the Secretary of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee, Mr. Kiren Roy, to be notified that the lighting of a bonfire would be a contravention of the Calcutta Police Act. At the meeting Mr. Gandhi stated that he was advised that the notice bad no legal effect, and took personal responsibility for the bonfire. Mr. Gandhi's persistence in his interpretation of the law led to a melee in which two inspectors of police, 14 sergeants, 17 other ranks and some members of the public received more or less serious injuries, and 26 persons were arrested. Mr. Gandhi left the meeting and was afterwards informed that he would be prosecuted. Later it was arranged that the prosecution would be postponed until his return from Burma on his undertaking for himself and the Congress that no similar bonfire should take place in Calcutta in the meantime.