§ MR. FREDERICK WILSON (Norfolk, Mid.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether Mr. M'Gregor, Assistant Commissioner at Leribe, in Basutoland, reported to the Colonial Office in 1899 that the price of Basuto ponies was £8 each; whether he can state what number of these ponies were purchased by the Boers for the forces of De Wet and other leaders, while the English Government were buying Hungarian cobs at £33 each.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINMr. M'Gregor reported on 4th July, 1899, that the price of Basuto ponies was £8; in July, 1900, he reported the price of horses as £12 10s. each; on June 30th, 1901, he said that the price of horses was £15-£25, and that they were almost unobtainable. I cannot say how many Basuto ponies were purchased by the Boers; but in his report for the year ended 30th June, 1901, presented to Parliament in December, the Resident Commissioner for Basutoland stated that 15,000 ponies had been exported, making a total of 20,000 horses drawn from Basutoland for the use of our Army.