§ MR. SYDNEY BUXTON (Tower Hamlets, Poplar)On behalf of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for South Aberdeen, I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been directed to the statements made by Mr. Brunner, member for the Eshowe district of Zululand in the Legislative Assembly of Natal, as to the raiding of cattle by Zulus under the instructions of military officers in the Vryheid districts of the Transvaal, and in particular to the statement that thousands of head of Boer cattle were brought in and handed to one officer, the Zulus being allowed ten per cent. of all the plunder; whether the Prime Minister of Natal has protested to the military authorities against the action taken by British officers in this matter; and whether he is now in a position to produce the correspondence between the military authorities in Natal and the Natal Administrator and Natal Government upon this subject; and, if not, whether that correspondence has been asked for and when it may be expected to arrive.
§ MR. BRODRICKI have seen the telegram addressed by Mr. Brunner to the Prime Minister of Natal, and the reply to it, dated 3rd April, in which the 953 Prime Minister said that he believed Colonel Bottomley had exceeded the instructions given in his original orders dated 25th March, and that the matter was in course of being put right. The Prime Minister of Natal protested specially against Colonel Bottomley and his agents acting without reference to the magistrates of the districts, and against the idea of allowing armed Zulus to cross the border on their own account, but after the receipt of Lord Kitchener's telegram of 5th April, which I read to the House on the 13th instant, the Prime Minister, though still objecting to Zulus from Zululand being permitted to loot cattle within or without Zululand, accepted the course of proceeding indicated in Lord Kitchener's telegram, which appeared to remove the principal matters of protest. My latest information is that since the completion of General French's operations the attention of Lord Kitchener has again been called by the Governor of Natal to the views of the Natal Ministers, to which I am sure he will give due weight. The complete correspondence on the subject has not yet been received, and I am not therefore at present able to make any statement as to publication.