Delhi, Feb. 22.
A statement in conciliatory terms was issued to-day on the Constitution. al crisis by the Marquess of Linlithgow, the Viceroy of India.
The statement contained an explain. ation of the difficulties which had arisen in the United Provinces and Bihar in connection with the release of political prisoners, and which had led to the resignation of those two Congress Ministries.
The Viceroy stressed that there was no foundation for the suggestion that his action had been determined by a desire to undermine the position of the Congress Ministries.
"The action taken," he said, "was designed to safeguard the peace and tranquillity of India and, incidentally, to uphold the sanctions of law and the orderly functions of the Constitutional machine."
Lord Linlithgow emphasized that the prisoners whose release was in dispute were, almost without exception, persons convicted by the normal criminal courts of violence or of preparation for specific acts of violence.
To acquiesce in their immediate and indiscriminate release would be to strike a blow at the root of law and order in India, and to threaten dangerously peace and good government.
Retreat in Policy The Governors and the Viceroy, the statement continued, had done their utmost, over the last seven months, to work in harmonious ce-operation with the Congress Ministers of both Provinces.
As regards this particular issue. there was no going back on the polity of readiness to examine individual cases. and to release individuals where no undue was involved.
Further, the Viceroy declared, there was no impropriety in the Governor's ing such individual examination declining. without it, to accept the advice of their Ministers.
The action he had taken. Lord Linlithgow went on, left it open to the Ministers, in consultation with the Governors, to pursue a policy of the release of prisoners. They needed to anticipate no difficulty at present, any more than they had in the past, to secure the friendly and ready cooperation of the Governors on individual examination.
"I am glad to think," the Viceroy concluded, "that in no quarter is there manifest any disposition to extend the area of difficulty beyond the limits of the position which I have described.
"It is my sincere and earnest hope that it may short! be possible to return to normality and that in the iwo Provinces most concerned, the Ministers, in discussion with the Governors, may find themselves abk to resume their interrupted labour:—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.