Mr. Chamberlain stated on Tuesday that the Indian Government had
inquired into the deplorable case of the drafts fresh from England that were landed at Karachi from the Ballarat' and sent up-country through Sind in the hot weather, with the result that, out of a thousand men, a hundred and thirty-six were stricken with heat apoplexy and nineteen died. Brigadier-General Roe, who as acting Q.M.G. diverted the ship from Bombay to Karachi; the G.O.C. at Karachi, who allowed the troops to travel in an ill-equipped train ; and the Senior Medical Officer at the port, who failed to take precautions for the health of these inexperienced men, have all been removed from their posts. The Commissions now taking up the larger inquiries into the Dardanelles and Moser potamian expeditions were strengthened on Tuesday by the nomination of Admiral Sir William May and Field-Marshal Lord Nicholson for the Dardanelles, and Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge and General Sir Neville Lyttelton for Mesopotamia. Mr, Roch, the Liberal Member for Pembrokeshire, had also been added to the Dardanelles Commission last week by the House, against the wishes of the Government; at the same time, Major Wedgwood, the Liberal Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme, was added to the Mesopotamian Commission with Mr. Asquith's cordial assent.
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