Yes, Sir, because the £14,000 is the increased cost; but I will pass from this point with the statement that they have done magnificent work. They have kept our Dervish aggression and enabled the western part of the Protectorate to be peacefully administered throughout the whole War. They were admirably handled, very mobile, and they asserted a moral supremacy over the Dervishes which stood them in remark- able stead when they had to exploit that moral supremacy during the last few weeks. About the recent operations I will only say that, led by Colonel Ismay, they captured Jidali as soon as the aeroplanes had done their work. They then pursued the flying Mullah, and I think it, will be an interesting example of the mobility of the force that in that pursuit they covered 140 miles in two and a half days. When a few days later Tale was taken, and the remnant of the Dervish force escaped, a section of the Camel Corps pursued them hotfoot on the 10th of February. On the 11th they caught up one important party of the Dervishes and accounted for the whole of them, either in killed or surrendered. On the next day they accounted for the rest, except four men, and they were the Mullah and three of his devoted companions. They had detached themselves from the main body of the Dervishes and made their way to a waterhole, called Dodhais, close to the Italian frontier. When they got there they found only enough water for one man and one pony. The Mullah watered there and his companions made their way back some 20 miles to Gerrowei. One of these companions surrendered to us a few days later and reported that, on going back the next day to Dodhais, all trace of the Mullah had been lost. Whether he had attempted to make his escape into Abyssinia or had perished in the desert, or what has become of him, of course, we do not know.

9.0 P.M.

To return to the more purely financial aspect of this question, we do expect that as a result of these operations, which cost £50,000 in one year, we shall make an appreciable annual saving on the military expenditure in the Protectorate. I think we shall still need the camel constabulary to patrol the country, but I believe it may be possible to do without an Indian detachment there; and although at this moment I cannot give an exact estimate, I hope we may be able to save something like £20,000 or £30,000 a year on this Vote, and, in so far as the rise in the rupee means an increased cost of troops paid at Indian rates and of anything bought in India. I hope the saving may be found more substantial. There will be this further item to set against this expenditure which I am now defending. As a consequence of the settled administration of the western half, the Customs have gone up steadily from £23,800 in 1914 to £'71,000 in the present year, and I see no reason why, with a settled condition of the whole country, the Customs and general revenue should not increase very considerably. In passing from this Vote I should like to say that I think very great credit is due to Mr. Archer, Commissioner of Somaliland. It is to his consistent advocacy that this particularly successful operation was due, added to his enthusiastic co-operation on the spot: and what pleases mo more than all is that now he has the opportunity, so long desired, of showing his activity and energy in the work of peaceful development, as the result of which I hope it may be possible, before many years are out, for Somaliland no longer to be a burden on the British Exchequer, but a self sustaining portion of the British Empire.

With regard to the Estimate for Supplementary News Service, which is paid through Messrs. Reuter, during the War it was essential, not as a matter of propaganda, but as a matter of giving full information on matters of Imperial interest, that important events, which were not always of local, topical, or press interest, should be fully sent to foreign countries and His Majesty's Dominions, and, after the War, since April, 1919, this service has been sent to the Dominions and to the Colonies through the Colonial Office, and made chargeable to the Colonial Office Vote. It is called a supplementary service, because it is matter which is sent by Reuter's Agency as supplementary and additional to their ordinary service. There is no question of a subsidy to Messrs. Reuter's to send a service, but they simply charge the extra cost of this additional service. We do not direct the material to be sent. What we do is this. At the end of each month we scrutinise what they have sent, and if it is matter of really Imperial interest, over and above what they normally send to their newspapers which pay them for their service, we then sanction the expenditure in this connection.