UGANDA. (Hansard, 20 March 1899)

THE EARL OF CAMPERDOWN

My Lords, I rise to ask, with reference to recent events in Uganda, whether Major Macdonald's expedition has finally terminated; and whether his Report will be presented to Parliament when received. The most recent Papers which have been presented with regard to Uganda carry the history of the expedition of Major Macdonald only so far as the unfortunate fighting which followed upon the mutiny of the Soudanese, and I ask this question in the hope that Her Majesty's Government may be able to give us some later information with regard to the expedition. Your Lordships will remember that Major Macdonald's expedition was a large expedition, fitted out in the year 1897, in the month of June, I think it was, and that the instructions to that expedition were that they were to investigate the sources of the Juba. That expedition, which was a very large and important one, consisted of 600 Swahalis, 50 Sikhs, and five British officers specially detached from this country. There was a Maxim battery, and it was to be joined by a body of 300 Soudanese. Major Macdonald took command of the expedition, and proceeded up country on the 23rd September. The Soudanese who joined him rose in revolt, and from that day—the 23rd September 1897 —to the 3rd May 1898 the expedition was occupied in fighting these Soudanese, and also in resisting other revolts which arose in other parts of Uganda. So far as the official Papers relating to Major Macdonald's expedition are concerned they terminate there. On the 3rd May Major Martyr, an officer who was well acquainted with the Arabic language, and also with the habits of the Soudanese, arrived and took over the command of the troops. My Lords, the expedition was then incited to revert to its original plan, and all information since that date is derived only from newspapers and similar sources. It was believed that Major Martyr left Kampala about the end of May, and marched to Mumias, 150 miles towards the coast, from where he branched off to Save, about 80 miles from Mumias, on the north of Mount Elgon, where the headquarters of the expedition are reported to have remained. Two small flying columns proceeded, one led by himself, 1298 which went to the north-west as far as a place called Tarrangole and subsequently returned to headquarers, the other led by Captain Austin, and proceeding up the west coast of Lake Rudolph. It returned in November to headquarters. Since that date nothing has been heard, but on the 4th March Major (now Colonel) Maedonald arrived at Mombasa, and I believe has since proceeded to Cairo. It was reported in the papers that Colonel Macdonald had returned to Mombasa for the purpose of reorganising the expedition, having left a post somewhere near Save with the intention of returning and proceeding in the north-west. I merely state the report as I read it in the papers. I want to know whether that expedition is finally terminated, and whether the Report of its proceedings since made, which will of course, be presented to the Foreign Office, will be laid on the Table of this House when it is received?

*THE PRIME MINISTER

My Lords, it is perfectly true that an expedition was sent out under Col. Macdonald, of which the main object was to ascertain more exactly the frontier which had been agreed upon some time before between what was then the Italian sphere of influence and our own, and as the boundary was indicated by the head waters of the river Juba, and our geographical knowledge of the locality was singularly deficient, we thought that it. was important that we should be able to-exactly indicate how far British influence extended. I may, however, say fairly that that was not the only object of Col. Macdonald's expedition. There were rumours at the time of designs on. the Upper Nile, which experience did not altogether falsify, and these made us anxious to establish our military power at some station of the Upper Nile. Unfortunately the mutiny among the Soudanese troops, to which the noble Earl has referred, brought that particular branch of the expedition to an untimely end. It has been thought that it involved special blame to Col. Macdonald that such a mutiny took place, but if the noble Earl will study what has gone on in the neighbouring Free State of the Congo, where they have had larger experience and a fuller establishment, he 1299 will see that the difficulty of avoiding a mutiny of coloured troops was one to which they were exposed in quite as great a degree as we were. I believe it was the knowledge of the successful mutiny that was carried on shortly before against Baron Dhanis that incited our Soudanese to rise in their turn. The suppression of the mutiny, as the noble Lord says, occupied several months, but it had a worse effect than that, for it BO diminished the force at the command of Col. Macdonald that it was not thought wise to prosecute the original enterprise to its full extent, so certain movements connected with the exploration of Lake Rudulph took place, and the result will be shown when Papers are laid on the Table. A more important point alluded to by the noble Earl is that connected with the name of Major Martyr, a very efficient and gallant officer. A considerable portion of Col. Macdonald's troops, with other troops that were in the Protectorate, made an expedition from the higher water of the Nile down the river bank, and that expedition under Major Martyr has, on the whole, been successful. The first object of it was to deal with the Dervishes, who were at a place on the right bank of the Nile a few miles south of Lor. When Major Martyr arrived at Bedden, which is the extreme point to which steamer navigation from Khartoum is practicable, he entered into communication with the Congolese Commandant at Kero, which is about half-way between that place and Bor. He proceeded in his steamboat to Kero, and after a friendly consultation with the Commandant, who expressed his readiness to co-operate with him, advanced to reconnoitre towards Bor, which he found abandoned, and learnt that the Dervishes, hearing that an English force was enroute, had dispersed. The Sudd obstruction, which the Egyptian steamers had been unable to pentrate at the junction of the White Nile with the Bahr Ghazel, was reported to extend southward as far as Shambe, which is midway from that junction to Beddcn, and about 200 miles from either point. This 200 miles of Sudd lies therefore at present as an insuperable obstruction to the navigation between Bedden and Khartoum. Perhaps, however, when the Nile is high again—it is now low—a navigable channel may be reopened by natural causes 1300 or by the efforts of steamers, as has happened in the past. Until, however, that takes place, I do not suppose Major Martyr is likely to proceed much further down the Nile, and, under these circumstances, I should imagine that after establishing a post at Bedden, which, as I have said, will bo the eventual head of navigation, he would return to the Protectorate. But the noble Earl will bear in mind we have no direct means of communication. The telegraph only extends 300 miles from the coast, and there are 500 miles above that which can only be reached by runners. Our information, therefore, is very imperfect. We hope Col. Macdonald's Report will be soon in our hands, and, when we have the Papers, we shall have great pleasure in laying them upon the Table. If we have not given information up to the present, it is simply because up to now it has only reached us in a fragmentary form, and could hardly afford any information to the House.