What Liberals are expected to do

THE speech made by Mr. Freemantle, Finance Member of the U.P. Government, in opposing the resolution of Babu Vikramjit Singh in the U.P. Legislative Council, recommending the release of political prisoners, will, we hope, open the eyes of our Liberal friends to the dangers of the policy they have been following in regard to repression. Some of them have undoubtedly condemned repression from the first, but just because the condemnation has not been sufficiently strong, it has been found possible for a member of the Government to insult their patriotism by saying that he had expected them to support the repressive policy. “The moving appeal of the mover,” said Mr. Freemantle, “would have had greater force if last year when the Province was in a disturbed state, the Liberal Party and the Constitutional Party generally had come forward boldly to support the Government in saving the United Provinces from what might have been a fairly general rising.” What we do know is that if there had been a general rising in any active, physical sense, no section of the community would have been more actively interested in its immediate suppression than the party of Swaraj. But what proportion of those who are in prison for alleged political offences were convicted of even remote participation in violence in any form or shape? And is it possible for the Liberal Party, without ceasing to be Liberal, to support the Government in measures for the suppression of what is neither more nor less than a peaceful, though organised, political agitation, in some cases nothing more than the assertion of the primary rights of free speech, of public meeting and of association? And yet just because the Liberal Party, as a party, did not support the Government in such measures, Mr. Freemantle tells them that they have forfeited the right of asking the Government to do a right thing at a later stage.

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