§ LORD STRACHIEMy Lords, I gave my noble friend the Leader of the House private notice that I intended to call attention to the very serious statement in The Times and other newspapers this morning as to a Turkish communiqué stating that a British defeat took place on the Tigris on April 9, and that in fighting lasting six hours the British forces penetrated part of the Turkish trenches but were repulsed with heavy losses. In the evening Press this is amplified by a statement that last Sunday, during an attack which was repulsed with great loss, the Turks counted 3,000 dead bodies lying in front of their trenches. Possibly the Government may be able to contradict that statement or give us some more information as to actual fighting that may have taken place since the attack on Wednesday week, when, undoubtedly, there were very large casualties, although on that occasion one is glad to think that our soldiers were successful. No information has been published since the battle of last Wednesday 744 week. We have at the present moment a strict censorship of the Press, and nothing is supposed to be published which is inconvenient or against public policy. Surely it would have been right to censor such a statement as this, about the truth of which the Government knew nothing and which is very alarming and distressing to thousands of people who have friends and relatives fighting in Mesopotamia.
LORD SANDHURSTMy Lords, with reference to the Turkish report that some 3,000 British dead were collected in front of the Turkish trenches after the attack of the 9th, Sir Percy Lake reports that our total casualties in killed and wounded are much below this figure. He has satisfied himself, by personal inspection and from inquiry among the wounded themselves, that the medical arrangements generally have been satisfactory. He further reports that the weather is very bad, that on the 12th there was a hurricane accompanied by torrents of rain, and that the floods on both banks are on the increase.