§ MR. HOPWOODasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether it be the fact that Officers of the Staff in the recent wars in Afghanistan have acted, or are acting, as paid correspondents to newspapers in the United Kingdom or India; is such employment undertaken with the approval of the General Commanding in Chief or of the authorities in India; if not, whether any Despatch or Memorandum, censuring or prohibiting such a practice, has been issued to the service in India by the Secretary of State, or the Viceroy of India, or the General Commanding in Chief there; and whether any regulations of newspaper correspondents in the field were "provisionally sanctioned," or formally adopted by the Secretary of State, or transmitted by him to the Viceroy of India or the General Commanding in Chief there; if so, whether they have since been recalled or cancelled, and by whom?
§ MR. E. STANHOPESir, certain officers of the Staff have, in the recent Afghan wars, acted as war correspondents of newspapers; and in certain cases last year, as the House is already aware, they undertook that employment with the knowledge of the General Commanding. I cannot, of course, say positively whether any officers are now so acting; but a general official Order was issued last year by the Adjutant General, under the direction of the Commander-in-Chief in India, prohibiting Staff officers from undertaking such employment. No regulations as to newspaper correspondents in the field have been provisionally sanctioned, or formally adopted, by the Secretary of State.
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKEinquired whether the hon. Gentleman could give the date of the Order in question?
§ MR. E. STANHOPEI am afraid I cannot. I do not think we have got it at the India Office; but I think we can get it at the War Office.