§ SIR G. CAMPBELL (Kirkcaldy, &c.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India, or the Minister who is at present representing the India Office, whether the large military expeditions to the Maranzai country, the Black Mountains, and other places on the North-West Frontier of India, in which Her Majesty's troops are now engaged and in which they have already suffered appreciable losses, are in pursuance of a policy of advance sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government in this country, or are undertaken by the Commander-in-Chief in India, with the permission of the Government of India, on his own responsibility?
THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS(Sir J. FER-GUSSON, Manchester, N.E.)In the absence of my right hon. Friend the Under Secretary for India, I have to say that the expeditions referred to in the question are not in pursuance of a policy of advance, nor has any such policy been sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government. They are punitive and pacificatory expeditions undertaken not by the Commander-in-Chief in India on his own responsibility, but by the Government of India, subject to the sanction of the Secretary of State.
§ SIR G. CAMPBELLBut is it not a matter of fact that in the last two or three years there has been a great advance?
§ SIR J. FERGUSSONI cannot at this moment go into the general policy of the expeditions which have taken place on the North-West Frontier of India. I have answered the specific question put by the hon. Member.