MAJOR KNOXasked the Under Secretary for War whether there was any objection to publish a list of officers and 402 men whose names had been sent in by their respective commanding officers to the authorities for the honour of the Victoria cross, but who have not been selected for that distinguished honour?
§ SIR JOHN RAMSDENthought that it would not be desirable to publish such a list, for reasons to which the hon. and gallant Member, on consideration, would have no difficulty in agreeing as satisfactory. The commanding officers were desired to send in the names of the noncommissioned officers and privates who had performed such signal acts of gallantry as, in their opinion, would justify a claim to the Victoria cross. As might naturally have been expected in so gallant an army, the list sent in was very long and the task of selection very difficult, the number sent in as deserving the decoration being so very great in comparison with the number who could be admitted to the honour; and it had never been the intention of the Government to publish the names of any except those who actually obtained the honour. And though such a publication might be very satisfactory to those whose names were in it, yet such a course would have been invidious, and considerable dissatisfaction would be caused, and great disappointment felt by many brave and gallant men who were not less deserving but more unfortunate than their comrades. The object of the Government was to confer the greatest amount of honour with the smallest amount of disappointment. It was desirable, therefore, not to raise a second time the question of who were the most deserving among those brave and gallant men, and he hoped that the hon. and gallant Member would not press for the publication of the list.