Legal

Lord Sinha on Punjab Sentences. In the House of Lords, replying to Lord Russel on Aug. 7, in regard to the sentences in connection with the Punjab riots, Lord Sinba announced the commutation of Lala Harkishen Lal's sentence and pointed out that the original sentence was the only sentence which could be given if the accused was found guilty of the offence with which he was charged. He laid stress on the revision and commutations of the sentences and declared that time had now arrived for a revision of the actions, necessarily prompt and probably hasty, which were taken to restore order with a view to ensuring the confidence of the well disposed, that the action had been adequate and not merciless. Mr. Montagu had been constantly communicating with the Government of India by cable and he had every hope that a definite announcement with regard to the promised enquiry would be made shortly.

In this connection it is well to remember that the number of persons tried by the recent Court Martial Commissions in the Punjab was 852 of whom 582 were convicted and 270 acquitted.

His

The Trial of the ex-Kaiser. Comparing the Kaiser with the condemned sovereigns in history, Lord Curzon said in the House of Lords on July 24 that there was something picturesque about Charles I, and something grand, almost heroic, in the intellectual scope and imagination of Napoleon. But a man who was not only guilty of the war atrocities, but ignominiously fled from his country immediately it was in difficult circumstances, was a man unimaginable as a hero or as a martyr. presence just over the German border might be a political danger. All the Allies believed that the ex-Emperor, more than any individual, was responsible for the shocking breach of faith by which the war began. He, more than any other man, was responsible for the terrible crimes disfiguring the war and upon his shoulders for ever more rested the burden of the appalling calamity which had overtaken the world. The Kaiser hitherto had always emphasised the commanding nature of his position. It was difficult from the tenor of his speeches to estimate whether he regarded himself as special protege of the Almighty, or whether the Almighty was under his special patronage. Such a man ought to be tried and judged, and, if guilty, punished.

Litigation in India.

579

According to the "Statistics of British India" published recently by Mr. Findlay Shirras, the love of litigation in India is so great that in 1916, 2,329,000 civil cases were taken up against 2,226,468 in 1915, 2,055,272 in 1914, and an average of 2,153,000 in the last five years. Suits for money or movable property made up more than two thirds of the total and suits under the Rent Law one-half of the remainder. Relatively to the population Bengal appears to be the most litigious of all the provinces of India; Madras and the Punjab next. The suits instituted in 1916 involved a money value of Rs. 48,75,42,538. Fifty-three per cent. were for amounts not exceeding Rs. 50, and 95 per cent. for sums not exceeding Rs. 500. In the Small Causes Courts 352,097 cases were tried, of which the United Provinces had the greatest number. As regards criminal justice the number of offences reported in 1916 was 1,669,670 in a population of 243,607,034. The number of persons concerned was 2,053,656, and 1,011,210 convictions took place. There was a marked increase in criminality in the year-the convictions increasing from 38 per 10,000 of the population in 1889 to 42 per 10,000 in 1916. These figures furnish us with matters for serious consideration.

Punjab Trials.

The Bengalee writes:

We hope the whole subject of the introduction of the reign of the Martial Law, the establishment of Martial Law Commissions and the extension of their jurisdiction by the skilful device of retrospective effect being given to their operations will come for searching examination before the Privy Council and the proposed Commission of Enquiry. The judgments of the Martial Law Commissions have sprung a huge surprise upon the public as to the way in which the letter and spirit of British jurisprudence were respected and their sentences have been received all over the country with feelings of horror horror and indignation. The judgment in the Lahore Conspiracy case has been characterised with good reason as the saddest commentary on British Justice. The angels must weep when even judges allow themselves to be swayed by political bias. It is satisfactory to note that Anglo-Indian opinion, not coloured by passion or prejudice, is at last coming round to see the judgments of the Martial Law Commissions in their true light.

Medical.

The Leper Problem.

The Rev. Frank Oldrieve, Secretary of the Mission to Lepers in India, delivered an interesting and instructive lecture on the 22nd July at the Regent's Park Hall, Dacca, on "The Leper Problem and How to Solve It." The lecture was illustrated by magic lantern pictures.

H. E. Lord Ronaldshay, who presided, in introducing the speaker, made a reference to the great service the Mission had been rendering to humanity. His Excellency said that it was a matter for regret that very little attention was being devoted by people to the disease of leprosy, whereas malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases had engaged so much of their attention. Out of a total of more than Rs. 44,00,000 of annual expenditure, only a small fraction was received from the public.

There was an exhibition of pictures showing the infectious character of the disease and the relief work that the mission has been carrying on in the different centres in India. The total number of lepers in India was nearly 150,000.

The Rev. Frank Oldrieve said that the disease was not hereditary, but, according to expert opinion, it was infectious. The best way to avoid contamination, therefore, was to keep aloof from an affected person. Without proper care the disease was likely to spread, and by way of illus. tration he referred to a certain village in which there were now to be seen sixty-five lepers in place of only one thirty years ago. The Mission had not only made arrangements for the segregation and treatment of lepers, but it had also some twenty homes for untainted children, where 447 children of lepers were being cared for, educated and fitted to go out and earn their living. The latest methods of treatment were being introduced into the Mission's asylums under expert medical supervisors, and very encouraging results had been obtained in the course of the 44 years of its working in India. The Mission has now 36 asylums of its own with 4,030 inmates.

It aided eleven other asylums belonging to the District Boards, Municipalities and other public bodies, and provided Christian teaching in nine other asylums with 1,415 inmates. In concluding his lecture, the Rev. Frank Oldrieve made an appeal for funds, and said that Rs 100 would pay everything for a leper man or woman for a year and Rs. 75 for an untainted child in a home or for a leper child in an asylum.

Treatment of Venereal Diseases In the current number of the Social Service Quarterly, Bombay, Professor K. T. Shah of Mysore writes an article based on the report of the Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases, on the treatment and prevention of venereal diseases. He draws attention, to the practice in this country of parents and friends seeking to get profligate young men married in the absurd belief that it will put an end to their profligacy. "In our country," Professor Shah says, "there is the gravest reason to fear that not only does this knowledge of suffering (from venereal disease) not prevent the patient—a male one-from marrying, but is often a direct incentive to hasten the marriage. Parental anxiety to reclaim a misguided youth often leads to the celebration of marriages at the most undesirable moments. And there is reason to suspect that medical advisers in this country, even when they are consulted, seldom take up that firm stand which alone might succeed in dissuading. Cases are even known of medical men actually recommending marriages in order to prevent further mischief."

Influenza Preventive.

A committee of medical men of Madras has recommended the following recipe to be used for inhalation as a prophylactic against Influenza. It is as follows:-Oleum Chinnamoni 2 drams, Liquor Formaldehyde 1 dram, Spiritus Reetificatus, 1 ounce. A few drops to be sprinkled on a handkerchief and inhaled at frequent intervals.

World Conference of Medical Women

of

Dr. Hilda M. Lazarus, W.M.S. of Surat bas received a cable from New York, dated the 17th July as follows:-" A six weeks' conference will be held here of medical women from all parts the world from the 15th September this year. All expenses of doctors are assumed by the Association. The conference will consider questions of health and social morality. Strongly urge you to represent India." Unfortunately, the Women's Medical Service is so short of hands that Dr. Lazarus cannot get leave to proceed to

New York,

Science

British Chemical Industry.

Interesting expressions of view on the national work done by British chemists during the war and on the policy to be followed to prevent any restoration of German supremacy in British markets are contributed to the first number of the Chemical Age by a number of distinguished British chemists, chemical engineers, and others.

Mr. Fisher, President of the Board of Education, writes: "To-day the co-operation of science and industry is vital to the welfare of the country. The war has been won by the help of science, and it is only with the help of science that industry can be re-established and fitted to meet the demands that will be made upon it by a world seeking to repair the ravages of four years of conflict."

Professor Henry Louis, President of the Society of Chemical Industry, states: "The war was really based on applied chemistry, for the two facts which enabled Germany to go to war were (1) that an English chemist discovered how to make 'basic' steel from phosphoric iron ores, and (2) that Mr. S. Eyde, a Norwegian electrician, had practically applied the English discovery of producing nitric acid from atmospheric nitrogen. It was only Germany's pressing need for nitrates to make her warfare possible that caused her to spend vast sums in the direction of elaborate factories for carrying on these already well-known processes upon a manufacturing scale and thus complete the second link in the chain with which Germany intended to fetter the world.

66

I have no fear of open honest competition, but with Germany the position is different, and we ought to profit from past experience. The state of scientific teaching in this country is far ahead of what it is in Germany or anywhere else, especially in scientific technology. I have maintained that view for many years, and this war has proved its correctness. We have applied our science and knowledge to war work for not quite five years, and in that short time we have outstripped the Germans at every point."

D. Charles Carpenter writes: "I believe that if the country had been offered in pre-war days 'cheap' energy from Germany through a submarine cable the Government would have supported the proposal. It is wiser to-day, but the price paid has been a heavy one."

Practical Scientists.

At the Imperial Education Conference called to discuss problems presented as a result of the experience of the Army educational schemes Sir Henry Hadow, Principal of Armstrong College, Newcastle, said if sometimes, we, as a nation, were not extraordinarily quick at taking up new ideas, we were, at any rate, fairly tenacious when we had once caught hold. For genius, education could do very little, but for talent, for that very valuable kind of secondary ability, a great deal could be done, and not nearly enough had been done in this country hitherto.

"The great German scientists," he proceeded, "have not, I think, been in advance of the great British and Dominion scientists in inventions or imagination; where the German scientists have gained over us is in this, that when a great man over there has invented, or borrowed, an idea, there rose around him at once a phalanx of people who were prepared to carry it out, work its details to show its applicability, and bring it to practical account."

We wanted in our Universities, and to some extent our technical colleges, a great deal more in the way of material resources and laboratory appliances. That was a point in which our technical education wanted improving.

Growth of Trees.

Actual

By means of a clever apparatus for measuring the circumferential growth of trees it has been proved that the growth of trees is greater during the early part of the day than later. contraction has, in fact, been observed in Kew Gardens between the hours of noon and 3 p.m The measurements were taken with a delicate little instrument which has been invented by Mr. A. Mallock, F.R.S. It is anticipated that the apparatus will be of considerable value in forestry work; especially in tropical forests, as many tropical trees do not show annual rings at all.

The Late Prof. Haeckel.

The death of Professor Haeckel, is a loss to the scientific world. Born at Potsdam in 1834 he was a biologist famous alike for his zoological researches and for his generalisations on biology. Haeckel was the first naturalist who drew up genealogical trees to show the descent of animals and was the leading exponent of Darwinism in Germany. Haeckel's greatest and most popular work is "The Riddle of the Universe" published in 1900.

Personal

Prince of Wales.

His Majesty has accepted President Wilson's invitation to the Prince of Wales to visit America as the guest of the Government on the termination of his Canadian visit about October.

Andrew Carnegie.

The death of Mr. Andrew Carnegie on August 11, removes from the industrial world one of its most prominent figures. Carnegie, who was born. in 1837 while yet a boy, went with his family to America and started life as a weaver's assistant in a cotton factory. He changed his vocation soon and became a telegraph messenger boy. He learnt telegraphy and entered the employ of the Pennsylvamia Railroad Company as a telegraph operator, soon becoming the superintendent of a division. But the turning point of his life came when he joined Mr. Woodruff in organising the Woodruff Sleeping Car Company, gaining through it the nucleus of his enormous fortune. He subsequently became the head of the Carnegie Phibbs and Company and Carnegie Bros. and Company. Both the Companies were amalgamated into Carnagie Steel Company which was afterwards merged into the United States Steel Corporation. His daily income is estimated at £5,000. He has given vast sums of money for public benefactions which up to July 1918 amounted to £70,000,000. Two of his notable gifts are Carnegie Libraries and the Carnegie Scholarships. He is also the author of a number of publications which are interesting and one of them 'The Empire of Business' has been translated into many languages. Mr. Carnegie was also responsible for the Palace of Peace at the Hague. It was a maxim with him that 'a man who dies rich dies disgraced.' The problem of his later life was to frame schemes to dispose of his wealth. How well he succeeded in this, the world knows.

Lala Lajpat Rai's Regret.

Lala Lajpat Rai writes in "Young India" of New York:

"I am exceedingly sorry that the Secretary of State's order prevents my going to India and England just when I wanted most to be there. India is in the grip of a terrible famine and the conditions there are very distressing. For the last 25 years of my life I have been taking active part in the work of famine relief and it pains me considerably to feel at this juncture that I should be unable to do anything for my people.

Events are developing rapidly in India and every Indian who feels for his country and is desirous of taking part in its life must feel that his place is there in the midst of his countrymen and not 12,000 miles away from home in a position of comparative safety, comfort and ease. Personally I am not sorry for having been in the United States during the war, but now I am overwhelmed with a sense of guilt at not being in India, to play my part in the great struggle which my countrymen are carrying on against such great odds. Even the fact that it is through no fault of mine that I cannot go to India just now affords me little consolation. It is a good work to create a world opinion in favour of Home Rule for India but the real field of work is India. Not even the world's moral support can help us decisively. India's freedom must be wrought by Indians themselves and in India. Even if one has to suffer for his opinions he must suffer in India. This war was fought to free the world. Its immediate effect is the tightening of the chains of those who were in bonds before and who were induced to fight for world of democracy. Will the governing classes learn nothing from history?

Sir M. Sadler on Mr. Sastri.

Sir Michael Sadler addressed the following letter to the Hon. Mr. V. S. Srinivasa Sastri :It will be some encouragement and satisfaction to you, I hope, to hear how many people have spoken to me of what they learned and gained by your addresses in Leeds. It means a great deal when people say what they have said about your words and personality. You pleaded for a great cause and did not plead in vain. Difficult as it must have been to you to come, and much as you gave up by coming, I trust that you feel, as I do, that all your long experience and all that India can give to the West and looks to the West to give her, lay in the background of all that you said both in public and in private, and struck deep chords of sympathy and conscience.

will

To me who had the privilege of welcoming you as our guest it was a visit to which we shall always look with a sense of realities seem more clearly and of a friendship begun.

Hon. Mr. Mahomed Shafi

The Hon. Mr. Mahomed Shafi, a well known Lahore barrister and a prominent member of the Mahomedan community, has been appointed a temporary Member of the Viceroy's Executive Council in the vacancy caused by the resignation of Sir C. Sankaran Nair',

Political

Ceylon National Congress Committee.

A meeting of the Ceylon National Congress Committee was held on Saturday, the 12th July at the Tower Hall, Maradana. The following Resolutions were passed :

1. This Committee is of opinion that the Reform Despatch of the Governor of Ceylon to the Secretary of State for the Colonies should be immediately published in Ceylon to afford the public an opportunity of presenting their views on the proposed Reforms before any final decision is arrived at.

2. This Committee respectfully requests the Secretary of State for the Colonies to sanction the immediate publication in Ceylon of the said despatch and to grant an interview to a Ceylon Deputation.

3. This Committee authorises the Secretaries to correspond with the Government and to take such other steps as may be deemed necessary to secure the publication of the said despatch.

4. This Committee is of opinion that Ceylon is entitled to far more liberal reforms than India and is an excellent field for the rapid realization of full self-government. Such treatment of Ceylon, this Committee believes, will be the surest proof to India and the world of the genuineness of the desire of the Imperial Government to carry into effect the British ideals of liberty, self-development and self-determination for all peoples great and small, whether within the Empire or without, the complicated and difficult problems which arise in India being absent in Ceylon.

DEPUTATION TO ENGLAND.

5. That three or more gentlemen be appointed Delegates of the Ceylon Reform Conference of 1918 to interview the Secretary of State for the Colonies with regard to the proposed Reforms.

TELEGRAM TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

6. That the following telegram be despatched to the Right Hon'ble the Secretary of State for the Colonies:

"We respectfully beg you sanction immediate publication of Governor's despatch. We appoint three or more of the following (viz.) Senanayake, Pereira, Jayatilleke, Barristers, Professor Wickramasinghe, Father Pereira, Doctor Gabriel and Arthur Silva our deputation. We beg you suspend final decision pending interview. Ceylon entitled to more liberal treatment than India,

being excellent field for the realization of selfgovernment subject to Imperial supervision. Such concession will prove to India and world the genuineness of the Imperial Government's desire for the realization of the British ideals of liberty, self-development and self-determination for all peoples. We pray for Reform on the lines of the Resolutions of the Reform Conference of 1918-Arunachalam, President."

Madras Liberal League on Reform Bill,

The Madras Liberal League has adopted a Memorandum on the Government of India Bill. The Memorandum at the outset states that the Bill leaves too much to rules to be made under the Act and this defect should be remedied by embodying the provisions in respect of the more important matter in the Act itself or by framing the necessary initial regulations in respect of important matters and inserting them in an alternative schedule attached to the Act itself. Among other things the Memorandum states that it should be provided by the Act that the Indian element in the Provincial Executive Council should not be less that the non-Indian element. The status and emoluments of the ministers should be the same as those of the members of the Executive Council and method of appointment should be similar. The subject of education should be transferred as a whole to the minister. The Government of India's proposal for a separate purse for the reserved and the transferred departments are mischievous and objectionable and should not be adopted. Provision should be made by statute that the Indian element in the Executive Council of the GovernorGeneral should not be less than the non-Indian element. Beginnings of the system of responsible government should be introduced in the Government of India also and the subjects of education, public health, commerce and industries are eminently suitable for transfer. In any event the subject of customs and tariffs should be left to the control of Indian Legislative Assembly. The Council of India should be abolished and the Advisory Committee constituted on the lines suggested in Mr Basu's dissenting minute. The Indian Legislative Assembly and the Provincial Legislative Councils should be allowed to elect their own Presidents and Vice-Presidents. The Governor of provinces should be appointed from outside the ranks of bureaucracy. The control of public services should be given to Indian legislature subject to the provision that rights and privileges of the existing office holders shall not be prejudiced by any legislature,