§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLasked the Secretary of State for India, Whether it is not the case that the raid of the Wageerees on Thull was committed at a time when the British troops had invaded the Khost Valley, destroyed property, and committed acts of hostility on a much larger scale than those of the Wageerees, and that the incursion of the Wageerees was generally considered at the time to be a reprisal for acts endangering the security of themselves and their neighbours; and, whether under these circumstances, in view of the general pacification, he will remit the punishment which Lord Lytton sought to impose, and give an opportunity of forgiving and forgetting, before allowing the Indian authorities to undertake another of the so-called punitive expeditions?
§ BARON HENRY DE WORMSrose to Order. He asked whether the Question was in Order, in accordance with the Rules of the House, which were to the effect that no Question could either be argumentative or express an opinion? He ventured to submit that the Question was much more of the nature of a speech than a Question.
§ MR. SPEAKERThe Question of the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy was brought to the Table of the House, and underwent revision by the authorities of the House, because it was not considered in Order in several respects. The hon. Member now calls my attention to the Question, and I am bound to say that it is scarcely within the Rules of Order. It does contain matter of an argumentative character, and in other respects is out of Order; but, at the same time, so far as it relates to facts, the Question is not out of the Order.
§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLsaid, he would put the Question so far as it related to the facts.
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONThe first raid of the Wageerees took place in January, 1879, and at that time military operations were proceeding in the Kurrum Valley, which was occupied by British troops. The Wageerees are not Afghans, but are supposed to have been excited by emissaries sent from Cabul. That does not, in my opinion, alter the character of the offence, nor relieve them of the consequences which they incurred by their murderous raid. At the time when the second raid took place, in 1880, no operations were going on in the Kurrum Valley, and the district of Khost had been evacuated for some time. The Government of India must be held responsible for its local Frontier policy; and I have no reason to think that they failed to give full consideration to the circumstances of the case before coming to the conclusion they did.
§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLasked whether the noble Marquess meant by his reply that the Wageerees were not Afghans by race, or that they were not under the rule of the Ameer of Afghanistan?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONWhat I said was, that they have never acknowledged the authority of the Ameer of Cabul. I am not going to express any opinion on their ethnological character.