§ MR. HENRY J. WILSON (Yorkshire, W.R., Holmfirth)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether, in view of the agreements of the International Conferences on the Rules of War at Brussels in 1874, and at the Hague in 1899, that any compulsion of the population of occupied territory to take part in military operations against its own country is prohibited, that non-combatants are entitled to be treated as prisoners of war, that the tasks imposed on them shall have nothing to do with military operations, he will give instructions that the compulsory placing of non-combatant Boers upon military trains which are liable to attack by the enemy shall no longer be persisted in; and, if not, will he explain why this should not be done.
LORD STANLEYWill the hon. Member kindly refer to the reply to a Question put by him on the 6th February,† to which I have nothing to add.