Katarpur Case Prisoners

AS will appear from a paragraph published elsewhere, telegraphic appeals have been made to the Secretary of State and His Excellency the Viceroy to stop the execution of the four persons sentenced to death in the Katarpur cases whose petitions for mercy were recently rejected by the Viceroy. The Punjab Hindu Sabha, the Bengal Provincial Muslim League and Mr. Shaukat Ali, as President of the Khilafat Conference, have wired to the Viceroy and cabled to Mr. Montagu for interceding on behalf of these unfortunate men. The trial, which resulted in wholesale convictions with sentences varying from imprisonment to capital sentences, was held under the Defence of India Act by a Special Tribunal. It is also an open secret that the defence was materially handicapped owing to a variety of causes. The riots arose moreover out of Hindu-Mahomedan differences over the cow-killing question. Those differences no longer stand where they did. The Amritsar Session of the All-India Muslim League passed a resolution in favour of abolishing the cow-sacrifice among Muslims: and now representative Hindu and Mahomedan bodies are unanimous in appealing to the Viceroy for mercy. The air is thick with talk of co-operation not only among the people and His Majesty’s officers but also among Hindus and Mahomedans. If ever there was a case which pre-eminently deserved the exercise of the royal prerogative of mercy, it is the case of these unfortunate men. If ever there was a time when it could be most fittingly exercised it is, we submit, the present one. We still hope that His Excellency will rise to the height of the occasion and by commuting the death sentences in the case of these men, earn the undying gratitude of millions of His Majesty’s loyal subjects, both Hindu and Muslim.