§ MR. MONKasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether he is now prepared to offer any explanation of the discrepancies that exist between the statements made by Sir Garnet Wolseley to the War Office in his letters and telegrams relating to the health of the troops in Cyprus during the first fortnight in August last, and the official report of Surgeon General Home, dated " Nicosia, March 1st, 1879?"
§ COLONEL STANLEYThe statement telegraphed from Cyprus on the 10th of August by the Lieutenant General Commanding, " That the sickness in the force was 6 per cent of the strength," was derived from information given 1714 him in the forenoon of that day by Sir Anthony Home, the principal medical officer. It referred to the sickness on August 9, and the statement is nearly the same as that made in the Parliamentary Paper of April 7, 1879, in which it will be seen that there were, on August 9, 170 sick in a strength of 2,699 non-commissioned officers and men, being 6.3 per cent. The fractional difference in the two statements is due to the omission of fractions in a telegram, the nearest whole number being given. The "morning states" of the camp are tiled, and their accuracy tested afterwards. After that message was sent a sudden outburst of sickness occurred; and that news being telegraphed home by a newspaper correspondent about the same time as the Lieutenant General's message was published caused a misapprehension. The Return in the Parliamentary Paper shows that on the 9th of August the sick in the force were 6¾3 per cent of the strength; in seven days —that is, on August 16—the rate had risen to 20.3 per cent. The two telegrams referred to different periods and to widely different conditions.
§ MR. MONKYou do not give any explanation of Surgeon General Home having stated that a quarter of all the troops in Cyprus were in hospital.
§ COLONEL STANLEYI make the statement as I received it; but Sir Anthony Home states there were 20.3 per cent of the strength ill in the following week.