d not know
anything of his proclamation.

(11) That he fired without warning the crowd and even after it had
begun to disperse. He fired on the backs of the people who were
in flight.

(12) That the men were practically penned in an enclosure.

In the face of these admitted facts I do call the deed a 'massacre.' The
action amounted not to 'an error of judgment' but its 'paralysis in the
face of fancied danger.'

I am sorry to have to say that Mr. Pennington's notes, which too the
reader will find published elsewhere, betray as much ignorance as
his letter.

Whatever was adopted on paper in the days of Canning was certainly not
translated into action in its full sense. 'Promises made to the ear were
broken to the hope,' was said by a reactionary Viceroy. Military
expenditure has grown enormously since the days of Canning.

The demonstration in favour of General Dyer is practically a myth.

No trace was found of the so-called Danda Fauj dignified by the name of
bludgeon-army by Mr. Pennington. There was no rebel army in Amritsar.
The crown that committed the horrible murders and incendiarism contained
no one community exclusively. The sheet was found posted only in Lahore
and not in Amritsar. Mr. Pennington should moreover have known by this
time that the meeting held on the 13th was held, among other things, for
the purpose of condemning mob excesses. This was brought out at the
Amritsar trial. Those who surrounded him could not stop General Dyer. He
says he made up his mind to shoot in a moment. He consulted nobody. When
the correspondent says that the troops would have objected to being
concerned in 'what might in that case be not unfairly called a
'massacre,' he writes as if he had never lived in India. I wish the
Indian troops had the moral courage to refuse to shoot innocent, unarmed
men in full flight. But the Indian troops have been brought in too
slavish an atmosphere to dare do any such correct act.

I hope Mr. Pennington will not accuse me again of making unverified
assertions because I have not quoted from the books. The evidence is
there for him to use. I can only assure him that the assertions are
based on positive proofs mostly obtained from official sources.

Mr. Pennington wants me to publish an exact account of what happened on
the 10th April. He can find it in the reports, and if he will patiently
go through them he will discover that Sir Michael O'Dwyer and his
officials goaded the people in