§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether the Indian Government has occupied any part of Africa on the coast opposite to Aden, or sent any troops there on its own account, or on account of the British or Egyptian Governments; and whether, as reported in the newspapers, a small force of Indian soldiers were lately engaged in some expedition into the Hara country and suffered considerable loss on their return; and, if so, what was the object of the expedition? In putting this question, I should like, with the permission of the House, to explain that I had not forgotten the observation of the right hon. Gentleman the First Lord of the Treasury that the time of the House would be saved by putting certain questions as to facts to the heads of Departments at their offices instead of inside this House. A fortnight ago I put a question to the Under Secretary for India on this subject, and I have not yet been favoured with an answer.
SIR J. GORSTI can assure the hon. Gentleman that if he has not received an answer, it his not been my fault. In answer to the first part of the question, I have to say that small detachments of 1638 troops from the garrison at Aden occupy the ports of Zeyla, Bulhar, and Berbera on the Somali coast. With regard to the second paragraph of the question, the object of the expedition was to punish the authors of a raid upon Bulbar in August last, in which 100 persons were killed.