HL Deb 16 February 1915 vol 18 cc508-13
*EARL CURZON OF KEDLESTON

My Lords, I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether it is the case that special arrangements were made at an earlier stage of the war for official accounts of the proceedings of the Indian troops at the Front; whether such accounts have been received at the War Office or the India Office; what use, if any, has been made of them either in this country or in India; and whether it is proposed to give the public any further opportunities of information on the matter.

In putting this Question, as to which I shall only have to make a very few remarks to your Lordships, I am really asking for information which I do not possess myself, which, so far as I know, the public does not enjoy, but which I think would be of value both in this country and in India. The Secretary of State will perhaps remember that at an earlier stage, soon after the outbreak of the war, I pressed in your Lordships' House that accounts of the fighting, notably of the part being taken therein by the Indian troops, should be sent out to India to the Viceroy to be circulated by him in the provinces and the big cities of that country. The Secretary of State led us to believe that that would be done, and I am confident that it has been his desire throughout to give as much information, both in India and here, about the movements and proceedings of those soldiers as was compatible with military interests.

A little later we heard that the right hon. Member for the Walton division of Liverpool, Mr. F. E. Smith, had been specially deputed to the Continent for this purpose; that he had been attached to the staff of Sir James Willcocks, and was there to act in much the same capacity as the officers who have reported home under the pseudonym of "Eye-witness" have done with regard to the movements of our own troops. If Mr. F. E. Smith was charged, as I believe he was, with these functions, we can all be confident that he would have discharged them not only with great ability but with perfect discretion. I am told, my Lords, that some of the narratives sent by him or by his collaborateurs have appeared in the Indian Press, and I think I can recall having seen one or two of them in the Indian papers that have come to this country, but I cannot recall having seen any of them in our newspapers here. I have no knowledge whether these reports when prepared by him are sent to the India Office or the War Office here, or whether, after being duly censored at the Front, they are despatched straight to India, and I am certainly under the impression that many of them have never been published at all. Therefore I put down this Question in order to enable the noble Marquess to give us some information upon the point.

I do not think that I need emphasise the importance of the matter. It is good, I think, for the English public to hear something of the deeds on the battlefield of our fellow-subjects from across the seas. We remember that great enthusiasm was excited by the arrival of these troops in Europe, and great éclat attended their appearance upon the battlefield. We know that they have since been in the thick of the fighting; and even here at home, although our interest is naturally more aroused in our own people, still I think we all would. look with interest and pleasure upon accounts of the doings of our Indian soldiers. Be it remembered also that there are at the present moment a very large number—I believe several thousands—of wounded Indian soldiers lying in the hospitals of this country. They bear their sufferings, as I can testify, having seen them, with the utmost cheerfulness. But what inspirits them and encourages them more than anything else are the tidings of what their comrades are doing in the field; and I can assure your Lordships that they derive much more satisfaction from a narrative in the newspapers of what is happening to Indian regiments at the Front than they do from any amount of warm clothing, sugar candy or cigarettes. So much for this country.

Then as regards India, of course the main effect that we look to produce is in India itself. And here, my Lords, I do not urge as much publicity as is consistent with military expediency merely on the score that the Indian people take a natural and legitimate interest in the proceedings of their fellow-countrymen, although it is true, if you study the Indian newspapers, that every bazaar in India at this moment rings with the war and with nothing else. I do not propose it so much on that ground as I do on the different ground, which may not perhaps be so obvious to many persons in this country—namely, that a reasonably frequent and full and accurate account of what is passing at the Front is required in order to preserve the balance of judgment in India and to enable the people there to co-ordinate the activities of the Indian troops in the field with those of the other combatant armies. I have seen passages in Indian newspapers in which the patriotic fervour of the native writers induces them—I am sure quite innocently—to represent the Indian troops as bearing the entire brunt of the fighting. The allied Forces, occupying I believe something like a thousand miles of front., are forgotten; our own troops are relegated to an honourable background; and we are almost led in these narratives to believe that the Germans are being held up and the salvation of the British Empire is being secured by the gallantry of the Indian soldiers alone. I believe that that gallantry has been very great and indisputable; but any one who knows the East will confirm what I say when I remark that just as great harm does result from exaggeration at one end as may result from ignorance or obscurity at the other. Therefore I plead for as much publicity consistent with military exigencies as the noble Marquess can give us—first, to relieve the legitimate anxiety of the Indian community; secondly, to enable the Indian public to form a balanced judgment of the part which is being played by India in the war; and, thirdly, to satisfy the very natural and I believe widespread interest which is felt at home in the doings of our Indian soldiers.

*THE LORD PRIVY SEAL AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (THE MARQUESS OF CREWE)

My Lords, the noble Earl has reminded us that some time ago—on November 18— the Question which he has again raised to-day was discussed in this House. I then explained that we had made arrangements for despatching a practically daily bulletin to India, containing as much news as could be sent in a short compass, under the supervision of a well-known former Indian official, Sir Francis Younghusband, who has been giving his time to the preparation of that report. Further than that, as the noble Earl has reminded us, there was a deputation to the Indian Expeditionary Force of three officers—Mr. F. E. Smith, accompanied by Mr. Primrose, who has since become Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and by an Indian Cavalry officer, Major Steel, who was formerly Military Attaché at Teheran and who was able to supply technical knowledge with which those other two gentlemen were not so fully acquainted.

It is important to draw attention to the use of one word in the noble Earl's Question—the word "official." It is not quite accurate to describe these reports as being official, any more than the reports of the officer who writes under the name of "Eye-witness" in the daily Press of this country. Those communications are not regarded as being official; they are specially communicated from the Front and they pass the official censorship, but they are not in the strict sense to be regarded, any more than these Indian reports are, as official communications. From Mr. F. E. Smith and his colleagues, between October 14 and February 9, seventeen communications have been received. They have all been either sent by telegraph or by mail to the Viceroy for translation and dissemination in India. Only four of them have appeared in the Press in this country, and they were published as containing matter which would be regarded as of general interest in this country and which was not supplied through the ordinary means of information or through the Despatches of the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief. That series it is intended should be continued. Two important accounts were sent to India within the last month. These have not been issued for publication here, because it was assumed by the War Office that, as only covering ground which would be covered in due course by the Despatches of Sir John French, it was not necessary to issue them separately for British consumption.

The various points that have been mentioned by the noble Earl as constituting reasons of importance why full information should be given will, I am sure, appeal to the House as a whole. When we discussed the matter before I think I pointed out that it was not easy for civilians to understand the particular caution which was regarded by the military authorities as necessary in supplying information on purely military points, and I think it cannot be disputed that the interest to the general reader of accounts of movements and engagements is bound to suffer to no small extent from the omission of names of military units, names of places, and names of individuals. But it is clearly necessary to bow to the technical knowledge and the trained wisdom of the military authorities in matters of this kind, and we have to appeal to the public generally, not merely in relation to the provision of news of the Indian troops but in relation to military movements generally, to exercise as much patience as they can and to refrain from the expression of disappointment at the suppression of information which to them would be interesting but which is regarded by the military authorities as affording possible information of value to the enemy.

Although the personnel of those who were deputed to the Indian Expeditionary Force is, as I have stated, somewhat altered, I hope that we shall retain the services of Major F. E. Smith, as he should properly be called, for the purpose of sending these reports; and I quite agree with what the noble Earl stated when he said that a continuous flow of narrative was what is required in India in order to make it clear what the actual services of the Indian troops are, stated with all the full meed of praise which they most fully deserve but without any of the exaggeration which the noble Earl hinted at as possible, and that is what I hope we may expect from a continuance of these reports.