Sir Michael O’Dwyer and the Jallianwala Bagh Meeting

WE desire to draw prominent attention to the following passage of Sir Michael O’Dwyer’s letter to the Press, to which we have referred at some length in our leading article:--Much controversy has centred round the nature of the meeting at the Jallianwala Bagh on April 13. General Dyer’s action in dispersing it was necessarily affected by his conception of its composition and objects. The Committee have thrown little light on these points, but condemn General Dyer for opening and maintaining fire on an unarmed crowd of 10,000 to 15,000 persons. A reference to the judgement of the Tribunal in the Amritsar conspiracy case, which was presided over by a High Court Judge, shows that the organiser of the Jallianwala meeting of April 13 was Dr. Mahomed Bashir, who had taken a leading part in the acts of rebellion on April 10, had led the mob, of which he was a recognised leader from April 10 onwards, at the attack on the National Bank and had incited them to the brutal murder of Messers. Steward and Scott. Can there be much doubt as to the object of the Jallianwala Bagh gathering on April 13, assembled in defiance of proclamations, or of the necessity for immediate and drastic action in forcibly dispersing it?Assuming merely for the sake of argument that the meeting was organised by Dr. Bashir, and that he himself is all that Sir Michael O’Dwyer says he is, can any man in his senses consider this a justification for shooting down all who were assembled there irrespective of their own conduct? It was found by the Martial Law Commission itself that Dr. Bashir was not even present at the meeting, while evidence before the same Commission showed that far from being a seditious meeting, it was a lawful meeting which condemned the outrages committed by the mob on the 10th and recorded the determination of those present to carry on agitation on constitutional lines.