On Monday the question of Uganda was raised on the
Estimates by Sir Charles Dille, who attacked the administra- tion of the Foreign Office, and declared that they had "con- ducted affsirs through odds and ends of administrators picked up anyhow and with little knowledge of the native language, and had only been saved from absolute disaster by the energy and pluck of young British officers lent by the War Office." Both Sir Charles Dilke and Sir Edward Grey, who followed him, criticised the conduct of the Martyr Expedition. Mr. Brodrick, in reply, defended the administration, and declared his belief that affairs in Uganda had now turned the corner and would soon settle down. The object of the Martyr Expedition was to explore, and to plant posts if possible on the right bank of the Nile, and so to connect Uganda with the territory already occupied by Lord Kitchener's troops, and thus ultimately to join hands with our forces in the Soudan. That is a perfectly good defence of the expedition, and no doubt it was dictated by sound policy. We fear, however, that, like many other things in Uganda, it was mismanaged. No doubt the Foreign Office has had a run of bad luck in Uganda, but it has also proved that a Department primarily meant to negotiate and not to administer is not a good body to rule uncivilised places. The Foreign Office has certainly not been fortunate in its choice of men. We have never been able to understand why it did not make use of Colonel Lngard's services in a country which he knew intimately, and where he always managed to keep things from falling into their present condition of anarchy. He might, of course, have failed, but he could hardly have done worse than the men actually used by the Foreign Office.
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