HC Deb 28 June 1888 vol 327 cc1545-6
SRI EDWARD WATKIN (Hythe)

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether the following statement in The Globe of Saturday last is correct—namely:— Colonel Battye and Captain Urmston were attacked by Gujars and Akazais while out with 58 Goorkhas and 19 police for an exercise march on the Black Mountain. The troops were a portion of the force of 300 Goorkhas holding Oghi, the outpost which Colonel Battye commanded. They were within our border when fired on near the crest of the Black Mountain. Colonel Battye and Captain Urmston were shot while succouring a wounded Havildar. The bodies of the two officers were taken to Abbotabad, and buried there on Wednesday with military honours. The Punjab Government desired to punish the Akazais for their misconduct last spring by an Expedition, but the Government of India negatived the proposal. The tribe was placed under blockade, and the outpost at Oghi was strengthened to guard against surprise; 250 more men have now been sent down there, and a squadron of Guides. Cavalry will also probably be sent. Besides the two British officers, six Goorkha sepoys were killed, and one Havildar wounded; and, especially, whether it is true that, while the Punjaub Government recommended a course which would have prevented the loss of two eminent officers, the Indian Government refused to allow that course to be adopted?

THE UNDER SECRETARY or STATE (Sir JOHN GORST) (Chatham)

The Secretary of State has received official information of the unhappy loss of two valuable and distinguished officers—Colonel Batty and Captain Urmston—under circumstances which have been described with substantial accuracy in the public Press. He has no official information of any proposal of the Punjab Government to direct an Expedition against the Akazais last spring. Such an Expedition might, no doubt, have cost many lives. In the last Expeditions against the Black Mountain Tribes, in 1868, there were 17 killed and SO wounded. The Secretary of State has no reason to think that the troops attacked were outside the British Frontier.