MURDERS AND THE PRESS 9 



11 The nature of the danger which we have to 

 meet has been revealed in the recent attempts to 

 derail by explosive bombs the train of the Lieu- 

 tenant-Governor of Bengal, in the attempt on the 

 life of the Maire de Chandernagore, in the terrible 

 murders of two ladies at Muzaffarpur, in the dis- 

 covery of a bomb factory in Calcutta, in the sub- 

 sequent attempt to destroy a tramcar, and in the 

 deposit of a bomb of great power in the precincts 

 of a church." 



On the same occasion the Home Member intro- 

 duced a Bill dealing with Incitements to Murder 

 in Newspapers. I have seen a few of the papers 

 which seem to have made such legislation neces- 

 sary, and their tone certainly seems to me to have 

 been indefensible. Much as I detest meddling with 

 the freedom of the Press, I can well conceive that 

 some of the articles in the Native Press of a certain 

 class are calculated to do immeasurable harm 

 amongst the young, impressionable, and somewhat 

 emotional Bengalis. The chief danger appears to 

 me to lie in the fact that the articles are almost 

 always an astute admixture of sedition, mysticism, 

 and religion. 



I came out fully anticipating possibly grave 

 financial difficulties and anxieties, but I certainly 

 never realised that I should be called upon to 

 support repressive legislation of somewhat drastic 

 character. I already realise that two things will 

 be essential cool-headedness and scrupulous re- 

 gard for what I may term very placid justice. 



What I dislike is this shower of repressive 

 measures which are being introduced. 



We have had also a Criminal Law Amendment 



