LORD DENMANMy Lords, I desire to ask His Majesty's Government whether there will be a march through London of Dominion and Colonial troops who have served in the war.
§ VISCOUNT PEELYes; it has been decided that there will be a triumphal march of Overseas troops through London. The details, which as my noble friend is aware are very complicated, are now being worked out, and I am not yet in a position to announce the precise date.
§ EARL STANHOPEMay I suggest to the noble Viscount that if there are to be any more of these triumphal marches they should occasionally consist of complete units. What I mean is this—that instead of battalions being represented by five hundred or six hundred men, the battalion should march as it marches in France with all its transport. It would teach the people of London what a "unit" actually means in war, and the march now suggested is an opportunity which should not be missed for allowing a battalion to march with its Lewis guns, its cookers, transport, 243 and the whole of its paraphernalia, and occasionally in different order—that is, one battalion in "marching order," and another in "battle order," which I am sure would interest those who witnessed such a procession and would teach them something as to what an Army really is.
§ VISCOUNT HARCOURTI hope that the noble Viscount will not lose any time in arranging this triumphal march, because, as he is well aware, day by day thousands of Australians and Canadians are returning to their homes, and they will be deprived of the tribute which Englishmen would wish to have the opportunity of paying them. I should like also to impress upon my noble friend the great importance in this triumphal march, or in some march at an early date, of including representatives of the troops that have come from the Crown Colonies—many of them coloured troops from the West Indies—in order that they, too, should have a tribute from this country for the sacrifices they have made. We know that some Crown Colonies cannot be represented. There are those from West Africa who have fought in West Africa and also in East Africa. They cannot be represented here, though their memory will be represented. But I hope that there will be full representation of Crown Colony troops as well as those from our self-governing Dominions.
§ VISCOUNT PEELThe Government are fully aware of the difficulty about delays, to which the noble Viscount alluded. He may have noted that I used the word "overseas troops," which has a rather wide application. I think that the suggestion made by the noble Earl was a very interesting one.