Lord Olivier’s despatch
Lahore, Friday, August 29, 1924
IT is the weakness of an irresponsible Government that where the question is one of pacifying the people or applying the healing balm to their lacerated heart, it is never prompt in its action. If ever there was a matter in which the promptest action was required on the part of the responsible authority, it was the attitude of the presiding judge in the O’Dwyer-Nair case, more particularly his summing up to the jury and the mischievous obiter dicta in which he allowed himself freely to indulge. And yet no action whatever was taken either by His Majesty’s Government or the Government of India at the time and, indeed, for nearly a month and a half. The case came to a close on the 5th of June. The widest publicity was given to the judge’s remarks, both in England and India. All leading newspapers in India as well as Liberal and Labour newspapers in England condemned the remarks with the utmost strength and emphasis. Yet it was only on July 17 that it occurred to Secretary of State Lord Olivier to write and send the despatch dissociating His Majesty’s Government from the judge’s remarks, while the Government of India’s own views on the matters dealt with in the despatch are yet to be formulated. This dilatory procedure in a matter vitally affecting the peace and contentment of the people, at a time when a Labour Government is in power in England, shows, not for the first time, that so far as India is concerned, there is not much to choose between the most progressive and the most reactionary Government in England.
