§ SIR EDWARD GOURLEY (Sunderland)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether the movements of the Commander-in-Chief in South Africa have been retarded by the omission of the War Office to provide in advance not only remounts necessary to meet ordinary waste, but the spare remounts necessary to allow horses overworked to be recruited; whether the War Office have in advance provided rolling stock necessary for the rapid conveyance from the Cape of horses, mules, guns, ammunition, and winter clothing, and other stores essential for the successful prosecution of the campaign; and will he inform the House how far and in what manner the alleged deficiencies have been met, and how they are to be avoided in the future.
§ * MR. WYNDHAMNothing in the frequent communications which pass between Lord Roberts and the War Office goes to prove that his strategical movements have so far been retarded or modified owing to a scarcity of either remounts or rolling stock in South Africa. It is true, however, that the general officer commanding line of communications cabled on 13th March that the expenditure of horses had exceeded all estimates. Up to that date the War Office had in variably exceeded the requisitions forwarded from South Africa, and since that date no effort has been spared to secure horse ships—and that is the factor which governs the problem—from every available source of supply. In the first four months of this year —the figures which I have for April being partly an estimate—we shall have shipped as remounts, in addition to horses and mules sent with troops, 27,041 horses and 17,143 mules. Between the 1st and the 25th May we expect to embark another 7,500 horses and 4,500 mules, and we have 7,300 horses and 2,000 mules on order, for which no date of embarkation has yet been 14 fixed. So that the total of remounts bought since the beginning of the year is about 42,000 horses and about 23,000 mules. On the 20th March Lord Roberts telegraphed that the railways of South Africa were in urgent need of rolling stock, the want of which would be prejudicial to the country after the cessation of hostilities. After a short correspondence the necessary expenditure was sanctioned on military grounds, and steps are being taken to procure the stock. The gauge of South African railways is 3ft. 6in., and must, therefore, be made expressly. I do not wish to put the case too high, but, so far as we know, the problem has not turned chiefly either on the number of remounts or on rolling stock, but on the fact that Lord Roberts seized the capital of the Free State by marching and fighting for a month away from the railway, and that since then he has been engaged (1) in capturing the railway, (2) in repairing it, (3) in shifting his base from Cape Town to Bloemfontein—a distance of 750 miles by a single line of rail with a rise of 4,500 feet, (4) in defeating detached forces of the enemy which threatened his communications from Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and blocked them from Hast London. The first three of these necessary preliminaries to an advance are now, I believe, completed, and the fourth appears to be proceeding satisfactorily.
§ Mr. WARNER (Staffordshire, Lichfield)Are the horses supplied to the Imperial Yeomanry, who took none with them, included under the term remounts?
§ * MR. WYNDHAMNo, Sir: remounts mean horses to make good wear and tear.