Beating a Missionary
The Secretary for India is to Ire congratulated on the completeness of the apology he has tendered for the action of the Madras police in beating a Scottish mis- sionary, Dr. Forrester Paton, mid drenching him with green water from a water-cart summoned for the purpose, for no other apparent offence than his presence in a street where they had been engaged in arresting someone else. Sir Samuel Hoare's statement in II letter to Sir Duncan Millar, M.P.—" I admit that II mistake was made and I express my sincere regret for it and fur the treatment of Dr. Paton which followed it "--is categorical. It is a mistake for which there could be no reasonable excuse, for Dr. Paton had told the police that he was Scotch and a missionary, and at the time 1w was assaulted he was alone in the street. The incident cannot but create mis- givings as to what may happen to ordinary Indians if a European can be thus handled by the police. Sir Samuel Hoare is evidently alive to this aspect of the affair, for he takes the very proper view that the attention publicly called to the incident may strengthen the hands of the Central and the Provincial Governments in India in preventing the possible abuse of exceptional powers in a time of political excitement.
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