§ SIR EDWARD GREY (Northumberland, Berwick)To ask the Secretary of State for India whether, having regard to the assassination of Captain Bowring in September, and of Lieutenant-Colonel Harman in February last, by Mahsuds enlisted for frontier defence, the Government of India is taking precautions to prevent other valuable lives from being sacrificed in the same way.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Brodrick.) The subject has engaged the very careful attention of the Government of India. Immediately on the murder of Colonel Harman, the Mahsuds in the Southern Waziristan Militia, some 400 men, about a quarter of the whole strength of the corps, were disarmed, and a full jirga of the tribe was summoned to meet the Chief Commissioner of the North-West Frontier Province. The Chief Commissioner reported that the attitude of the. representatives of the tribe at the meeting was satisfactory, as also appeared to him to be the condition of the tribe as a whole. It has been decided not to reinstate the disarmed men, but to make a fresh enlistment of from 100 to 150 selected Mahsuds, for whose individual conduct the tribe would be willing, in accordance with an undertaking given at the meeting, to furnish a full guarantee. Steps are being taken to select recruits and obtain the necessary security from the tribe in the case of each of them. It should be added that the murderers in both cases were apprehended and duly executed. The state of these frontier
† See (4) Debates, cxlvi., 1394.69 forces will be closely observed. I would take the opportunity to express my profound regret for the loss of these two officers and my appreciation of the value of their services. Captain Bowring held the important post of Political Agent in Southern Waziristan and was an officer of great promise. Lieutenant-Colonel Harman was Commandant of the Southern Waziristan Militia. The gallantry displayed by him and by Captain Plant, who without hesitation rushed unarmed upon the assailant and seized him, was the means, though Colonel Harman's life was sacrificed, of saving the lives of their brother officers who were with them at the time the attack was made, and I feel that no words of mine could add to the feeling which their devotion will excite in this House.