§ MR. DILLONI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether he will publish the field order, signed by Colonel Wynne, to the troops in Natal, in the month of January last, on the occasion of the advance on Springfield.
§ MR. WYNDHAMIt is not intended to publish documents of this character. I may remind the hon. Member that on the 23rd inst.,* in answering the Member for South Donegal, I pointed out that a despatch intended for publication should be a connected account by the Officer Commanding in Chief, not containing separate communications from subordinate officers.
§ MR. DILLONMay I call the hon. Gentleman's attention to the fact that the document to which I allude was not a private communication, but a field order, not in the nature of a report, and that it was partially published in the newspapers?
§ MR. WYNDHAMI think the hon. Member does not quite understand this question of despatches. That is one field order. Of course there have been scores
See page 173 of this volume.688 of field orders, and scores and even hundreds of reports from officers commanding brigades and lesser units. The only documents which are published in the London Gazette are the despatches of the General Officer Commanding in Chief. The despatches from the Peninsula were written by the Duke of Wellington, and not by officers who commanded brigades.