BRUTAL TREATMENT.

Northern Advocate, 22 December 1919, Page 2

BRUTAL TREATMENT.

INDIAN IRE AROUSED,

LAHORE LOST AND REGAINED.

A MOLLIFYING INCIDENT,

(Received 9.15 a.m.)

LONDON, Dec. 20

Striking details of the tion in the Punjab ar e being published. The principal reasons for the political agitation, are alleged to be the high prices of food and othernecessaries, Mohammedan unrest,, public floggings, and the long intervals between the arrest and trial of agitators, hundreds of whom had been: gaoled.

Shootings occurred in many places,, especially Lahore, where the mob took the city, the Europeans being: evacuated with difficulty. Eventually th e Forty-Third Brigade,' supported by four aeroplanes (two carrying bombs) re-took the city. The temper of the crowd was sullen and savage. The Commissioner and military commanders reported the shooting of General Dyer at Amritsar, and the announcement had instantaneous effect the disaffection rapidly declining..

The offifficials admit that public flogging's have been numerous, also. that a priest and a wedding party were flogged because the gatheringnumbered more than the ten permissible under martial law. The magistrate responsible for these floggings was dismissed.—U. Service.

Evidenc e given before the commission which is inquiring into the risings at Amritsar in April showed that a general rising was threatened in Punjab, recalling the, Indian mutiny., i General R. E. H. Dyer, who cony. manded the loyalist troops, ordered indiscriminate shooting, with th e result that 500 natives were killed arid 1500 wounded. The ourtrages in Punjab included the cutting of telegraph wires, the burning of three bank officials, the murder of a railway guard and th e burning of the town hall and public offices at Amritsar. General Dyer, in evidence, stated that when he found his orders were disobeyed he had to do something strong. "I shot well and strongly 1650 rounds," h e said, "lasting 10 minutes. The crowd had defied the law. No middle course was possible, so I ordered the troops to fire until they ran out of ammunition."