BRIGADIER-GEN. DYER DEAD.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19062, 26 July 1927, Page 9

BRIGADIER-GEN. DYER DEAD.

AMRITSAR RIOTS RECALLED.

(BT CABUS-PBESS ASSOCUTION-COPYBiGHT). (AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. AND SUN CABUi.) LONDON, Jul/ 24. The death is announced of BrigadierGeneral E. E. Dyer, who will be remembered as the man who ordered troops to fire on an Indian mob at Amritsar, in the Punjab, in 1919.

The Amritsar Affair. On April 12th, 1919, serious rioting broke out at Amritsar, in the Punjab, where the All-India Congress Committee was meeting. Inflammatory speeches by several members of this body aroused the populace, and they burned and sacked European banks and buildings, also murdering several Englishmen. The only armed force in Amritsar at the time was a detachment of /5 police, but in the evening 400 troops arrived under the command of Briga-dier-General Dyer. The District Magistrate the same evening circulated a notice to the leading citizens of Amritsar stating that no gatherings would be allowed, and would be fired on if they assembled. In the forenoon of the following day General Dyer and the Magistrate, with an escort of troops, marched to various pointß m the, town and repeated the warning against gatherings.' At 5 p.m., however, several thousands of people assembled it an open square used for public meetings, and were addressed by agitators. Brigadier-General Dyer led his troops to the spot and opened fire on the crowd, 1650 rounds being fired. The number of dead was estimated at 415. The immediate effect of this drastic action was that the disturbances throughout the Punjab, as well as in Amritsar, subsided. The situation in Amritsar was regarded as particularly grave, as it is the nerve-centre of the Punjab as far as the native population is concerned. The actual facts of what had occurred were not disclosed till some time later, when there was an outcry against the methods BrigadierGeneral Dyer used to subdue the disturbances. A fuller realisation, however, of the extraordinary difficulties that faced him, and of the danger of the trouble spreading, have led to his actions being viewed in a far more favourable light. His conduct was reviewed by a Court of Enquiry in England and upheld. Brigadier-General Dyer was born in Simla in 1864, and at the time of his retirement in 1920 commanded the 45th Infantry Brigade.