MR. BRYN ROBERTS (Carnarvonshire, Eifion)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, whether General Butler warned the Government in the course of last summer that if matters were pushed to an extremity with the Transvaal it would be necessary to abandon northern Natal, and to place a strong force on the Tugela, which would be the most northerly line of practicable defence; and if they also knew that General Butler had advocated the mobilisation of two Army Corps to cope with the Boers; and, whether General Buller reported after the battle of Colenso that it was impossible to relieve Ladysmith; and, whether the Committee of Defence ordered him to make a second attempt, and also sent out Lords Roberts and Kitchener without consulting the Commander in Chief. I beg also to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether General Buller after arriving at the Cape altered his plan of campaign, owing to Sir Alfred Milner having, with his approval, pledged the Government to defend Natal with the whole force of the Empire.
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.I will reply to both questions to- 1219 gether. The answer to the first paragraph is in the negative. I do not propose to continue by question and answer the controversy about General Butler, nor do I propose to reply to the second and third paragraphs of the question, which belong to a class of questions which, in the public interest, can only be dealt with at the close of the war. I may repeat the general assurance already given that the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in South Africa has been throughout free to carry out such operations as he thought proper.