The Allahabad _Leader_ deserves to be congratulated for publishing the
correspondence on Mr. Bosworth Smith who was one of the Martial Law
officers against whom the complaints about persistent and continuous
ill-treatment were among the bitterest. It appears from the
correspondence that Mr. Bosworth Smith has received promotion instead of
dismissal. Sometime before Martial Law Mr. Smith appears to have been
degraded. "He has since been restored," says the _Leader_ correspondent,
"to his position of a Deputy Commissioner of the second grade from which
he was degraded and also been invested with power under section 30 of
the Criminal Procedure Code. Since his arrival, the poor Indian
population of the town of Amhala Cantonment has been living under a
regime of horror and tyranny." The correspondent adds: "I use both these
words deliberately for conveying precisely what they mean." I cull a few
passage from this illuminating letter to illustrate the meaning of
horror and tyranny. "In private complaints he never takes the statement
of the complainant. It is taken down by the reader when the court rises
and got signed by the magistrate the following day. Whether the report
received (upon such complaints) is favourable to the complainant or
unfavourable to him, it is never ready by the magistrate, and
complaints are dismissed without proper trial. This is the fate of
private complaints. Now as regards police chellans. Pleaders for the
accused are not allowed to interview under trial prisoners in police
custody. They are not allowed to cross-examine prosecution witnesses....
Prosecution witnesses are examined with leading questions.... Thus a
whole prosecution story is put into the mouth of police, witnesses for
the defence though called in are not allowed to be examined by the
defence counsel.... The accused is silenced if he picks up courage to
say anything in defence.... Any Cantonment servant can write down the
name of any citizen of the Cantonment on a chit of paper and ask him to
appear the next day in court. This is a summons.... If any one does not
appear in court who is thus ordered, criminal warrants of arrest are
issued against him." There is much more of this style in the letter
which is worth producing, but I have given enough to illustrate the
writer's meaning. Let me turn for a while to this official's record
during Martial Law. He is the official who tried people in batches and
convicted them after a farcical trial. Witnesses have deposed to his
having assembled people, having asked them to give false evidence,
having removed women's veils, called them 'flies, bitches, she-asses'
and having spat upon them. He it was who subjected the innocent pleaders
of Shokhupura indescribable persecution. Mr. Andrews personally
investigated complaints against this official and came to the conclusion
that no official had behaved worse than Mr. Smith. He gathered the
people of Shokhupura, humiliated them in a variety of ways, called them
'suvarlog,' 'gandi mukkhi.' His evidence before the Hunter Commission
betrays his total disregard for truth and this is the officer who, if
the correspondent in question has given correct facts, has been
promoted. The question however is why, he is at all in Government
service and why he has not been tried for assaulting and abusing
innocent men and women.
I notice a desire for the impeachment of General Dyer and Sir Michael
O'Dwyer. I will not stop to examine whether the course is feasible. I
was sorry to find Mr. Shastriar joining this cry for the prosecution of
General Dyer. If the English people will willingly do so, I would
welcome such prosecution as a sign of their strong disapproval of the
Jallianwalla Bagh atrocity, but I would certainly not spend a single
farthing in a vain pursuit after the conviction of this man. Surely the
public has received sufficient experience of the English mind.
Practically the whole English Press has joined the conspiracy to screen
these offenders against humanity. I would not be party to make heroes of
them by joining the cry for prosecution private or public. If I can only
persuade India to insist upon their complete dismissal, I should be
satisfied. But more than the dismissal, of Sir Michael O'Dwyer and
General Dyer, is necessary the peremptory dismissal, if not a trial, of
Colonel O'Brien, Mr. Bosworth Smith, Rai Shri Ram and others mentioned
in the Congress Sub-Committee's Report. Bad as General Dyer is I
consider Mr. Smith to be infinitely worse and his crimes to be far more
serious than the massacre of Jallianwalla Bugh. General Dyer sincerely
believed that it was a soldierly act to terrorise people by shooting
them. But Mr. Smith was wantonly cruel, vulgar and debased. If all the
facts that have been deposed to against him are true, there is not a
spark of humanity about him. Unlike General Dyer he lacks the courage to
confirm what he has done and he wriggles when challenged. This officer
remains free to inflict himself upon people who have done no wrong to
him, and who is permitted to disgrace the rule he represents for the
time being.
What is the Punjab doing? Is it not the duty of the Punjabis not to rest
until they have secured the dismissal of Mr. Smith and the like? The
Punjab leaders have been discharged in vain if they will not utilise the
liberty they have received, in order to purge the administration of
Messrs. Bosworth Smith and Company. I am sure that if they will only
begin a determined agitation they will have the whole India by their
side. I venture to suggest to them that the best way to qualify for
sending General Dyer to the gallows is to perform the easier and the
more urgent duty of arresting the mischief still continued by the
officials against whom they have assisted in collecting
overwhelming evidence.