Calcutta Security Bill

ON account of the present state of feeling in Bengal, it was extremely doubtful if the Calcutta Security Bill would meet with the same amount of opposition as it would come out of the discussion on the Bill in the Legislative Council, and we are not in the least surprised that the motion for consideration of the Bill was passed on Monday in spite of Swarajist opposition. Nor could it be expected that the discussion on the clauses of the Bill after the Swarajists and their nationalist supporters had left the Council would yield any useful result. The debate, however, gave an opportunity to the government to reply to the charges of inefficiency and lack of determination in dealing with the riots. Lord Lytton, in an able speech, attempted to reply to some of the charges brought against his administration. He said they were blamed for “sharing the view of every one of their critics that trouble was at an end when all rioting had ceased” and for not having foreseen the recrudescence of the rioting which started on April 22. “Taking the two periods together,” His Excellency continued, they had been told that they had shown indifference and incompetence, that they had not used the powers they already possessed to get rid of bad characters and that to cover up their own sins of omission they were now asking for new and wholly unnecessary powers, when it was too late for them to be of any use in the present emergency, but which might be put to improper use in future in connection with political agitation or trade disputes. Lord Lytton had no convincing reply to offer to this charge.