द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

156 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
Captain Smith had a genial temperament, Major Findlay
had a rough exterior and a rather saturnine temperament.
We soon fell out with Major Findlay over trifling matters
and this led to hunger-strike. Through Mr. Brown's med-
iation, the misunderstanding was however cleared up. There-
after, when we came to know one another more intimately,
I discovered that he was an exceedingly nice and straight-
forward man. Another official who acted as Superintendent
for a time, was Major Sheppard, with whom there was
constant friction, but since he did not stay long, matters did
not reach a crisis.
Ours was not the first batch of state prisoners to be deported
to Burma. About a year before we arrived, another batch
had been sent across there. When the first batch came they
were not confined in the same prison, but were transferred in
twos to different prisons in Burma. They had a very hard
time and as they were separated, they could not put up a joint
fight for improving their conditions. During this period
two of the state prisoners, Mr. Jibon Lal Chatterji and Mr.
Bhupendra Kumar Dutt, sent a representation to the then
Secretary of State for India, Lord Olivier, severely criticising
the conduct of the Political Branch of the Bengal Police, called
in India, the Intelligence Branch. The main thesis was that
agent-provocateurs were employed by the police for entrap-
ping innocent but over-enthusiastic young men and that the
bogey of a revolutionary conspiracy was deliberately raised
by the Intelligence Branch because they could thereby draw
extra allowances, like 'danger allowance,' and could also have
at their disposal, large sums of money for employing informers.
Certain facts and figures were given by way of substantiating
this charge. This letter somehow found its way to the Indian
Press and after its publication, it was quoted by the Swarajist
leader, Pandit Motilal Nehru, in a speech in the Assembly,
attacking the policy of imprisoning people without trial.
The publication of the letter so annoyed the Government
that severe restrictions were imposed on the state prisoners
in Burma. After some time the temper of the Government
cooled down and the state prisoners were allowed then to
come together in one prison. An exception was however