HC Deb 29 April 1890 vol 343 cc1636-7
MR. BRADLAUGH

I wish to put a question to the Under Secretary of State for India of which I have given him private notice, namely, whether the information now received from the Government of India as to the sickness enables him to correct the answer which he gave to a question addressed to him on the 24th of February, that the accounts of the sickness prevailing in the Expedition had been greatly exaggerated.

SIR J. GORST

No, Sir; I am not able to say that more recent information has produced in the mind of the Secretary of State that alteration of opinion which the hon. Member appears to expect.

MR. BRADLAUGH

Does not the information which the right hon. Gentleman has been good enough to furnish me with, show that in the months of December, January, and February a very large number of British officers and British troops were sick? Take, for example, the 21st of December, when 50 men of the Scottish Borderers were sick and 13 out of 49 officers. Under those circumstances, does not the right hon. Gentleman think that my question fairly represented the state of health of the troops at the time I put the question?

SIR J. GORST

The hon. Member is now asking me for my opinion; but I must leave that subordinate to the opinion of the Secretary of State.