HC Deb 18 May 1903 vol 122 cc919-20
COLONEL SADLER (Middlesborough)

To ask the Secretary of State for War if he will explain why the maps of Somaliland recently issued by the War Office are being published with a footnote stating that the country has never been surveyed, seeing that Colonel Swayne between the years 1886 and 1892 made a survey of the country, which was acknowledged by the Government of Bombay.

(Answered by Mr. Secretary Brodrick.) The object of the footnote is to warn those who use the map that it is a compilation from travellers' routes and other sources of information and not the reproduction of a complete survey, and that the accuracy of the detail is therefore not absolutely reliable. Colonel Swayne's route reconnaissances have been used and have proved most valuable in the compilation of the map, but none of his work can be technically described as survey.