DELHI AGREEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 45, 21 August 1931, Page 7

DELHI AGREEMENT

WHAT WERE THE TERMS ?

The discontinuance of. .the: civil disobedience movement in India and the abandonment of the| activities employed in. connection with-it ; were announced in a long * statement; issued in New Delhi and read, in the House of Commons by the Secretary for India, Mr. Wedgwood Benn, last: March. The statement gave the text of the settlement reached in the conversations between the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, and Mr. Gandhi. As regards constitutional questions, the scope-of -future discussions was stated, with the assent of His Majesty's Government, to be the further .consideration of the scheme for the' constitutional government of Ind^a discussed at the Bound Table, Conference. In pursuance of the'statement madeeby the Prime Minister ,pa-' 19th January, steps were ta be taken, for the participation of: representatives of the Indian Congress in further discussions on constitutional reform. . • .;. _ Civil : disobedience was ; lp ; be effectively discontinued and reciprocal, action taken by the Government. Effective: discontinuance was stated to mean the effective discontinuance of all activities; by, whatever method pursued in, furtherance: thereof and in particular:— ■ ■ , ;; .-'.,: : , . (1) The organised defiance1 of provisions of any laws. . '■■' ;: (2). The movement for the non-pay-ment of land revenue and other legal dues. ~',,,''' -.."'■ "'.. '.' , (3) The publication of news sheets in support of the civil disobedience movement. ■ ~- . -.- . ..-, ■ (4); Attempts to influence civil and military servants -or village officials against the Government or to persuade them to resign their posts. - It was agreed that the diseontintfanee of civil disobedience connoted the definite discontinuance of the employment of the boycott of British commodities as a political weapon and of picketing except within the limits permitted by the ordinary law)'-' such picketing to be unaggressive. . ... Mr. Gandhi drew the attention of the Government to specific allegations against the conduct of the police and represented the desirability of a public inquiry into them. "In the circum-. stances the Government saw great difficulty in this course, and felt that it must inevitably lead to charges and countercharges and to militate against the re-establishment of peace. Having regard to those considerations, i,Mr. Gandhi agreed not to press the matter. , GOVERNMENT CONCESSION. The action the Government was to take on the discontinuance of the civil disobedience movement was stated in detail and included the withdrawal oJ: ordinances, etc., promulgated in connection with the movement. Pending prosecutions filed in connection with thp movement and relating to offences not involving violence or incitement to violence would be withdrawn and those prisoners released., who were undergoing imprisonment in conuee.r tion with the movement for offences not involving violence or incitement to violence. Fines .not realised were to be remitted. Additional police imposed in connection with the movement at the expense of the inhabitants of a particular area were to be withdrawn at the discretion of the local Government. Subject to certain qualifications, tho Government undertook to return moveable and immoveable property seized in connection with the movement under Ordinances or provisions of the Criminal Law. Tho Government was unablo to condone breaches of the existing law relating to tlio salt administration, nor in | the financial conditions of the country to make a substantial modification or modifications in the,Salt-Acts. For the sake, however, of giving relief to cer-