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

190 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
the Government struck hard. A round-up of trade union
leaders holding advanced ideas was made simultaneously all
over India in March, 1929, and thirty-one of them were
brought to Meerut, near Delhi, for trial in connection with
an All-India Communist Conspiracy Case. They were
brought to Meerut of all places for trial, probably because
Meerut being a small town, there would be no public demon-
stration there and also because trial by jury does not obtain
there. There were three Englishmen among them and
probably because of this, the case roused great interest and
sympathy among British Labour circles of all shades of
opinion. The trial dragged on for nearly four years and
during this period, bail was refused to the accused, though
repeatedly asked for. The prosecution case was that the
accused had conspired to deprive the King of the sovereignty
of India and with the help of the Communist International
had endeavoured to set up a government on the Soviet model.
On January 16th, 1933, judgment was delivered. Three of the
accused were acquitted and the rest (excluding one who had
died during the course of the trial) were sentenced to various
terms of imprisonment—from three years' imprisonment to
transportation for life.
The Meerut arrests were made when the Conservative
Party was in power but in June, as a result of the General
Election, the Labour Party came into office with Captain
Wedgwood-Benn as the Secretary of State for India. It was
expected that the Labour Party would do something for the
Meerut prisoners but actually nothing was done. Neverthe-
less, another move was taken by the Labour Cabinet in order
to placate Indian Labour circles. As the Labour counterpart
of the Simon Commission, a Royal Commission on Labour
was appointed, with Mr. Whitley as the Chairman. The Com-
mission was to report on labour conditions in India and the
possible lines of amelioration. Having gathered experience
from the boycott of the Simon Commission, the Labour
Government offered two seats to Indian trade-union leaders
—to Mr. N. M. Joshi (Bombay) and Mr. Chamanlal (Lahore).
Both of them who belonged to the Right Wing of the Labour
Movement accepted the offer and that decision at once