§ 13. Colonel YATEasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether, considering that the dispatches of General Smuts and General Hoskins regarding the operations in East Africa have been published, the time has now arrived when the dispatches of General Tighe regarding the operations during the preceding year can also be published?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONThere are three reports by General Tighe, which are presumably those alluded to. Each deals with a brief and minor phase of the earlier operations in East Africa, and, as such, were not regarded by the late Lord Kitchener, when Secretary of State for War, as suitable for publication. In view of the subsequent scope of the campaign—which has been described fully in the dispatches of General Smuts and General Hoskins—there seems no reason to revise this decision. All recommendations for honours and awards contained in General Tighe's reports, and in the many similar reports relating to these early phases of the War in Africa, have long since been considered and suitably treated. No officer or man, therefore, suffers by their non-publication. To select General Tighe's reports for publication would involve an invidious distinction between them and the numerous other reports mentioned. The good preparatory work done in East Africa by General Tighe has been cordially acknowledged in General Smuts? first published dispatch.
§ Colonel YATEIs the hon. Gentleman not aware that officers and men who were engaged in all these operations during the first two years feel aggrieved that there has been no account of the operations published? Will he kindly issue a dispatch describing them?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONI am afraid I cannot add anything to the answer I have given. The matter has been carefully considered.