The remainder of the debate was brief and of little
importance, the chief speakers being Sir Charles Dilke, who wanted all manner of papers—most of them essential ; Mr. Bourke, who explained that the clerks had had to read the papers of thirteen years, covering 15,000 entries, and that the Book really could not be made ready sooner ; Mr. Forster, who supported and supplemented the demand for papers, and observed that Lord Northbrook had been given to understand that this
Government approved its predecessor's policy ; Sir G. Balfour, who said that in 1842 a Tory Governor-General by public pro- Iclamation abandoned Afghanistan for ever, and that if we con- quered the country it would require a garrison of 65,000 men ; Mr. Childers, who remarked on the professed " simplicity " of the Cabinet, and repeated that the Government had, in the ninth paragraph of Lord Cranbrook's despatch, suppressed the facts ; Mr. Sullivan, who summed up the policy of the Government as one of aggression upon small Powers ; and Mr. Cross, who refused to allow Russia to be spoken of as an enemy of this country. Her Majesty was now in friendly relations with all the great Powers, " including Russia." Is there, perchance, another secret agree- ment, under which Russia and England share Central Asia between them ?
Previous page
