* * * . Mr. Das's manifesto was naturally a
principal topic when India was discussed in the House of Lorda_ on Tuesday. Lord Olivier, who introduced the subject, did not so much attack the Government as complain that Indians in Bengal were being arrested under an obsolete Regulation instead of under his own Ordinance of 1924. He explained his Ordinance at length and showed how it remedied the helplessness of the criminal code in the face of organized terrorism. The Ordinance, he insisted, was directed against revolutionary violence and not against political activity ; and so far as he knew there was no justification for the arrest of two members of the Legislative Council and the chief executive officer of the Calcutta Corporation. Lord Birkenhead explained that warrants of arrest had been issued under the old Regulation of 1818 in order to hasten the procedure, but the prisoners were all being treated now under the Ordinance. He could not agree that the three prominent persons whom Lord Olivier had mentioned were doubt- ful cases ; " politician " and " revolutionary " were not contradictory terms. Finally Lord Birkenhead welcomed Mr. Das's manifesto. He urged the Swarajists not to be content with a " passive co-operation " but to co-operate actively.
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