At the end of last week the additional Sessions Judge
at Dacca delivered judgment in the Dacca conspiracy case. He sentenced three of the prisoners to transportation for life, seventeen to ten years', fourteen to seven years, and one to three years' imprisonment. The rest were acquitted. It is said that the accused will appeal to the High Court. It will be remembered that in June the two assessors who tried the case inflicted no punishment, although they admitted the connexion of some of the principal prisoners with the Dacca Samiti. The Samiti was pronounced, however, to be an innocent organiza- tion established for the physical culture of youths without thoughts of sedition. The Times correspondent says plainly that the assessors were afraid of the pitiless social boycott to which they would have exposed themselves by returning a verdict of guilty, not to mention the danger to their lives. He blames the Government for expecting assessors to behave w ith superhuman disinterestedness and courage.
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