A libellous publication against the Savarkar brothers and how the Capital had to tender an object apology to them for having published the same.
Which the Savarkar brothers well still rotting in the jail and all public efforts to get them released were doggedly being set at naughty by the then authorities, the Capital, a leading Anglo-Indian Journal of Calcutta, came forward to break a lance or two in defence of the authorities. But this chivalrous attempts whether inspired or spontaneous proved a pitiable failure: for the youngest of the Savarkar brothers, Dr. Narayan D. Savarkar, immediately challenged the Capital people to their statements as published in their issue of the 16th of May 1921 and brought them to their toes. The objectionable passage ran thus:-
“Andaman Islands have no cable communication with the maintained of India and Burma, but wireless installation keeps Port Blair in telegraphic touch with Calcutta, Madras and Rangoon. Before the outbreak of the war one of the Savarkar brothers, the elder if I mistake not, has so ingratiated himself with the prison authorities by his good behaviour and a considerable amount of Freedom and eventually put in charge of the wireless installation becoming “Sperks‟ of the settlement. But the Maratha has no love for his benefactors and was at heart a rebel. The Germans had a well- equipped wireless station in Sumatra and as soon as the war broke out Savarkar got into communication with them and a plot was hatched for a ride on the unprotected islands. The Germans would use them as a submarine base for destruction of the commerce of Calcutta and the capture of the oil steamers from Rangoon. A part of the plot was the landing of a shipload of rifles in the Sunderbans to arm the rebels in India where Savarkar’s friends on the mainland undertook to rally to the flag.
“America was not in the war at that time and was ready to sell no end of war material to any belligerent. The Germans chartered to fast steamers in the U. S. A. filled one with rifles and ammunition and the other with six submarines in section. Fortunately for us the plot miscarried before the clippers arrived in India waters. Somebody in India turned informer and gave the show away to the Government of India which acted with promptitude and decision. The Somersets embarked from Madras on the Arankola whose captain sailed with sealed orders on opening which he found that his destination was port Blair. Three gunboats steamed quietly into the harbour and anchored off Ross Island. The inhabitants of the settlement were mystified and when they learned the true inwardness of things, became full of their own important and swanked no end. Some gentle pressure was applied to the Dutch to dismantle the German wireless station at Sumatra and Savarkar found his self in durance “vile‟, the horror instead of the pet of the local authorities.
“I heard different stories of the steamers which the Germans had chased. The one containing the submarines was chased into a Dutch port, but the other, he said, eluded her fleet and landed har cargo of rifles and ammunition somewhere in the sunderbans. This statement has been emphatically denied by the Military and police of Calcutta; but many of us remember a memorial Sunday when every launch in the river was commandeered for a military expedition to the sandheads. I have never been able to ascertain what for. “A delicious story in this small Chapter of the History of the War is told of the Press Censor at Port Blair. He was a halfway officer who came from Simla where he had great influence. When the Somersets arrived, it was found that there was no money in the local Treasury to pay them. “Telegraph to Calcutta for a lakh of rupees” said commissioner to the Press Censor. The latter wirelessed and the message was picked up the Emden which was cruising in the Bay seeking she might devour some bright genius in Calcutta, then wirelessed to port Bair that the lakh of rupees was being sent by the tramp steamer Lovat. The German cruiser picked up that message also and lay in wait. The Lovat was duly held up, her treasure appropriated, and she was then ignobly sent to the bottom. What a bunch of romance could be written from these materials which I have set before my readers to conceive them that the Government of India are by no means unreasonable in refusing to release the Savarkar brothers, who, Mr. Gandhi himself confesses, are frank revolutionaries.”
Ditcher’s Diary, Capital.
Mr. Savarkar’s solitors, the well-known Messrs. Manilal and Kher of Bombay, were instructed to serve a notice calling upon the editor, the proprietors and the publishers of the Capital to disclose the name of the writer and to tender and unconditional apology for the defamatory statements. They also assured the Capital that the Savarkar brothers had no desire to be vindictive and if the statement be publicly withdrawn they would refrain from further action.
After resorting to lot of evasive expressions and even a bit of bluff the Capital was awed down and published the followed apology in its issue of the 28th July, 1921.
“The Editor and the Publisher of the Capital deeply regret having published the defamatory remarks which appeared in “The Ditcher’s Diary‟ in the issue of the Capital, dated 26th May 1921 and hereby tender him an unconditional apology.” “The Editor and publisher withdraw the remarks made in respect of both the Savarkar brothers and deeply regret that they should have been published, however, innocently.”