And the Navy, I agree—but I was referring to operations on land. The Gold Coast Government, having been put to little expense and being well-to-do, generously agreed to pay the whole of it—and not to ask any contribution from the Imperial Exchequer. In the case of the much longer and more arduous campaign, carried on from Nigeria, with the help of the Nigerian Administration, and troops levied in Nigeria, in The Cameroone—while Nigeria has shouldered the burden of the full war establishment of the Nigerian Forces the additional expenditure has been paid for by the Imperial Government. So too, again, in the case of East Africa which took part in the same operations as Rhodesia, it is still under discussion with the Treasury to what extent East Africa should, if at all, contribute to those expenses which the Great War have submitted her to. After all, it is the merest accident which part of His Majesty's Dominions found itself a theatre of war. Exactly the same thing applied in the case of the administrations under the Chartered Company, and more particularly the Government of Northern Rhodesia, which is an entirely separate administration from that of the Chartered Company in Southern Rhodesia. This question as to how far any part of this expenditure incurred by the Imperial Government should or should not ultimately be chargeable to the local Government concerned; that is to say, the administration of Northern Rhodesia—and in respect of the occupation of a little strip of German South West Africa by Southern Rhodesia—has been under discussion for some time.

The discussion will go on with the authorities concerned, and we hope before long to arrive at a reasonable settlement. But pending a settlement as to whether any of this money should be paid by the local Government concerned, and so emphasise the point and make it quite clear that the Imperial Government is still putting up some claim for repayment in this respect, it was from the outset decided to treat this money actually spent in the pay of troops and for transport and supplies as a suspense account in advance. For that reason, because it was reckoned as an advance, interest on that sum has also been reckoned and treated equally with the actual money spent at the time. That interest is interest in respect of money that has been paid to holders of War Loan and of other Government securities and will be repayable by the Chartered Company in proportion as it may be charged with responsibility for the actual main amounts which were expended by the Imperial Government in connection with Rhodesian operations. To sum up: the present Supplementary Estimate is in respect of expenditure paid by the Imperial Government for military operations, which has been treated as an advance pending a settlement of the question as to whether any of that money should or should not be chargeable to the revenue of the Rhodesian administrations. To make it quite clear to my right hon. Friend, I may say that this has nothing whatever to do with any of the claims advanced by the Chartered Company in respect of its administration of Southern Rhodesia. It has been expressly excluded in the making up of that claim, and no item of this amount or of the original total amount off one million nine hundred and fifteen thousand pounds, figures in any way or shape in the Chartered Company's claim in respect of the administration of Southern Rhodesia. I have refreshed my memory with regard to the pledge given by my right hon. Friend, the Leader of the House. It is, of course, in reference to that claim The Leader of the House said: The British South Africa Company has sent in a claim against His Majesty's Government amounting, provisionally, to seven millions odd. This claim clearly demands the closest scrutiny, and the Government will not commit itself to any payment in respect of that claim without the sanction of the House of Commons. That is common ground; we are agreed upon that. I hope I have made it quite clear that this particular item which figures in the Supplementary Estimate is in no sort of way connected with the claim of the Chartered Company in respect of the position created by the Privy Council Judgment; and, in fact, no single item in it has been included in that claim, It is entirely in respect of military operations conducted and carried out for much the greatest part at the direct request of the Imperial authorities; and it has been treated in a particular manner in order to keep alive the claim put forward by the Treasury and the Colonial Office that some portion at any rate of that money may be ultimately chargeable to the revenue of Northern Rhodesia or Southern Rhodesia, as the ease may be.

I will pass to the other items on this Vote. I may say m the first place that that as to East Africa is really more, or less in connection with this item L have been discussing It is really an agreed amount, to bring things into line as to the difference between the rates paid by the Chartered Company to the troops and the extra charge for East African rates which have been charged to Mast Africa. Though I have not looked into the point as to why it was not foreseen sufficiently early, I think it had not been finally settled as to whether they were legitimately entitled to get this pay when the actual Estimates for East Africa were drawn up last year. I should like to come to the more interesting points raised by the hon. and gallant Member for Hull (Lieut.-Commander Kenworthy) and the hon. Member for East Wolverhampton (Mr. G. Thorne) with regard to Somali-land. Here we have a Supplementary Estimate of £96,000 over an original Estimate of a grant-in-aid of £103,000. I entirely agree that that certainly requires careful scrutiny as it represents nearly double the original grant. The actual increased expenditure was £116,000, but there was a saving of £20,000 in respect to certain sums allocated to the investigation of possible oilfields in Somaliland which was not actually spent during the year. Of that £96,000, no less than £30,000 represents the increased cost inflicted upon Somaliland by the rise in the Indian rupee, a thing that has caused much trouble and anxiety to many of the administrations under the care of the Colonial Office, and, I am afraid, will continue to be an anxiety to us for some time to come. A further item is due to a cause common to the Somaliland administration and to every administration at home and abroad, and that is the necessity for granting increased war bonus in respect to the increased cost of living; and though it is quite true that the cost of the grant-in-aid has been doubled, I would remind the Committee that in Somaliland, as elsewhere, the cost of almost every article either of luxury or of necessity has increased enormously, and therefore hon. Members must not assume that we have been guilty of extravagance.

There is, however, an item of £50,000 for the very successful operations which were conducted a few weeks ago, and which were certainly not foreseen or thought of when the Estimates were framed. This expenditure is probably the smallest expenditure for a similar result which has ever been carried out in the history of the British Army or of the British Air Service. The hon. and gallant Member for Central Hull spoke very strongly about the duty that ought to have lain on the Colonial Office and the Government—for the Government were, of course, consulted—of coming to the House of Commons and consulting them before we embarked upon this expedition, he called it, though I do not think it deserves the name of expedition, but this minor operation, because, however successful, it was a very minor operation. Except for a few aeroplanes temporarily borrowed from the adjacent garrison in Egypt and one battalion borrowed from the nearest East African Colony, no troops whatever were employed beyond the little handful of camel constabulary and the half battalion of Indian troops already in the country in normal times. It was an operation of the very smallest size, and could not have been extended into the beginning of a costly and disastrous war. There were not the troops there for it, and as for the rumours of operations in conjunction with the Italians in Abyssinia, these were pure rumours emanating from Nairobi, and what surprises me is that any newspaper in the United Kingdom ever put into its columns rumours from Nairobi as to operations taking place in Somaliland. As I say, these operations were of the smallest character in regard to their dimensions, though they were immensely successful "in their results, but the, success could only have been achieved on one condition— and that was absolute secrecy up to the very moment when the aeroplanes flew and discharged their bombs over the Mullah's armed camp at Jidali. Every precaution was taken for absolute secrecy throughout, and I do not suppose that more than a very small number of people knew anything about it. Not, a single package but was carefully camouflaged and labelled as something else, and I do not suppose that more than a handful of people actually on the spot even in Somaliland knew anything about it until the operations actually occurred. Of the expenditure on these operations, £36,000 was the extra cost to the little air detachment of operating in Somaliland, as compared with the ordinary peace expenditure already sanctioned while they were in Egypt.

How splendidly successful these operations were has already been detailed in this House, and I need say nothing more about it. The remaining £14,000 was for the military part of the operations, and more particularly for a slight increase to the strength of the camel corps. I hope in connection with this I may be allowed in passing to pay a tribute to the magnificent work which has been done during the last five years by the camel constabulary of Somaliland organised just before the War. This little force was the main defence of the Protectorate against the Dervishes throughout all the long years of the War, a little force of 500 men, who had to face very heavy fighting indeed in the early months of the War, and who did so with astonishing success.