Political prisoners and exiles

ON Tuesday, the Legislative Assembly once again passed a resolution demanding the unconditional release of political prisoners who have not been convicted of any offence; the trial under the ordinary law of the land of those of such prisoners against whom the Government thinks it has sufficient evidence to justify their going to court; and the removal of all difficulties in the way of the return to India of all Indian exiles who may be or may have been suspected of being concerned in revolutionary activities or other activities regarded by the Government as prejudicial to the interest of India. While we congratulate the Assembly on its passing this resolution, which, as far as it goes, undoubtedly represents the unanimous opinion and sentiment of political India, we must be permitted to express our regret at one very glaring omission in the resolution. We refer, of course, to the case of those political prisoners who may have been convicted by a court of law, but who in all other respects stand on the same footing as some, at any rate, of the exiles, whose restoration to the country was rightly demanded by the Assembly. The case of these prisoners was covered by the original resolution moved by Mr Shafee, but was, for reasons which we are entirely at a loss to make out, excluded from the amendment of Mr Goswami, which the House accepted in preference to the former. The exclusion is all the more extraordinary because Mr Goswami in his speech declared that he agreed fully with the original resolution. His only difficulty, it appears, was that Mr Shafee had brought within the scope of one resolution two different issues, affecting two distinct classes of prisoners.