INDIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22335, 24 February 1938, Page 9

INDIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS

Viceroy’s Statement On Difficulties

ATTITUDE OF GOVERNORS DEFENDED (BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) (Received February 23, 8.15 p.m.) RUGBY, February 22. A statement issued by the Viceroy of India (Lord Linlithgow) today reviews the history of the difficulties which have arisen in the United Provinces and Bihar' over the release of political prisoners. Lord Linlithgow emphasises that the prisoners whose release was in dispute were almost without exception persons convicted of violence,

or preparation for specific acts of violence, by the normal criminal courts, and that to have acquiesced in immediate and indiscriminate release would have been to strike a blow at the root of law and order in India, and dangerously threaten peace and good government. TheYe was no going back on the policy of readiness to examine individual cases and to release where there was no undue risk involved. There was, further, no impropriety in the governors’ requiring individual examination or declining, without it, to accept the advice of their Ministers.

Finally, there was no foundation for the suggestion that the action he had taken was dictated by a desire to undermine the position of the Congress Party Ministers. Neither the governors nor the Viceroy had any desire to interfere. After emphasising that the Congress Ministers need expect no difficulty in securing the friendly and ready co-operation of the governors, Lord Linlithgow added that there was apparently no disposition to extend the area of difficulty beyond its present limits. He hoped for an early return to normal.in the two provinces chiefly concerned. WELL RECEIVED BY CONGRESS PROSPECTS OF SETTLEMENT INDICATED (Received February 23, 8.35 p.m.) LONDON, February 23. The Delhi correspondent of “The Times” says that the Congress Party regards Lord Linlithgow’s statement as conciliatory. The publication coincides with an announcement that the Governors have asked the Prime Ministers of Bihar , and United Provinces to continue in office pending other arrangements—which is interpreted to indicate a resumption of negotiations and prospects of a settlement.