§ MR. WILLIAM REDMOND (Clare, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been directed to the speech delivered by General Ian Hamilton at Hythe, on 1st May, in which, after advocating the active pressing on of the war, he referred to the envoys from Cape Colony in England, and stated that some burghers not so long ago went to see De Wet to press upon him that the war should be closed, that De Wet shot them, and that so far as making and keeping an Empire goes the methods of De Wet are more likely to be successful than those of people in certain places in England, where these men from the Cape are received with open armsand behind the back of the Commander-in-Chief; whether it is in accordance with War Office Regulations that officers should make speeches of this character, and whether General Hamilton will be requested to refrain in future from making such speeches.
§ MR. BRODRICKI learn from General Hamilton that he made the speech in question without any intention to touch on political matters. His intention was as a soldier to point out to his audience that, in view of the shooting of peace envoys by De Wet, the reception accorded to certain gentlemen now in England would tend to the prolongation of the war in South Africa. The report of his speech was condensed, and in some respects inaccurate. It was one of three speeches addressed by General Hamilton as a newly elected freeman of a borough to his fellow freemen, and not as a public speech, and that officer has expressed his regret to me that it should have been such as to cause comment.
§ MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN (Kilkenny)May I ask the Attorney General for Ireland if he will accept similar apologies for Irish Members?