HC Deb 10 April 1902 vol 105 c1437
MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether he will state what were the constitution and duties of the Bushveldt Carbineers, two of whose officers were tried by court-martial, sentenced to death, and executed for twelve murders of Boers; and will he explain why, having regard to the fact that this regiment was made up of time-expired men, the services of these men, when willing to continue in the auxiliary forces, were not retained in the corps to which they originally belonged.

LORD STANLEY

This corps was raised in South Africa for military service during the war, and was employed on military duty in the northern district of the Transvaal. It was composed, I understand, partly of local men and partly of men who had finished their period of service or who belonged to colonial corps which had ceased to exist.

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

Why were not these men allowed to continue with their own corps, which in many cases had not ceased to exist?

LORD STANLEY

But the corps had ceased to exist.