I beg to move that Item B—[Somaliland, £96,000]—be reduced by £1,000.

I beg to draw the attention of the Committee to the statement that we have just heard from the hon. and gallant Gentleman about Somaliland and to his reasons for undertaking this expenditure and embarking upon this highly successful little war without coming to this House Fifty thousand pounds have been spent, and as wars go, it is a remarkably small sum, and the outcome has been very successful. I have no doubt that it was highly necessary to undertake this expedition, and, before moving to reduce the Vote, I left it to the hon. and gallant Gentleman to explain why the House was not consulted, or at any rate was not informed of the matter. The hon. and gallant Gentleman has told us that it was absolutely necessary that there should be complete secrecy. I may not know very much about politics, but I know a little about strategy. The very soul of strategy, naval, military, or aerial—the root principles are all the same—is secrecy. The excuse of secrecy could be used for every military or naval operation. It is always necessary, if possible, to keep your plans secret, and, if we allow this excuse to go without some protest, it will be possible to embark upon warlike operations, and practically upon a war, in some corner of the Empire on the plea of secrecy without informing the House. I submit that is a very grave state of affairs. In this desert the Mullah has no cables and there is no wireless. Rumour travels very fast in savage countries, but it would have been perfectly safe, at any rate when the expedition had started, to have informed the House, or, if the House had not been sitting, to have issued an official communiqué. That is the very least that we could have expected. The expedition was small, it was successful and it was necessary, but, if we are to have any sort of control over the Executive, we must raise a protest against the defence put forward by my hon. and gallant Friend that he could not inform the House about this expedition until a question was put by an hon. Member, because it was necessary to keep the operations secret.

I submit that this is a very grave constitutional question, and I ask the support of hon. Members irrespective of party. The whole cry in the country is that the House of Commons is losing its grip on the Executive and is losing control of finance and of policy. The Opposition are twitted in the country—I am glad to say that personally I am not twitted—with not raising our voices against what the people outside call the Government folly. We are told: "You are the Opposition, and you do not oppose this and that mad adventure." Here is a thing upon which we can seize, and I do beg the support of hon. Members. If the hon. and gallant Gentleman be allowed to have his point. it will be possible, on the plea of secrecy, to embark upon any expedition anywhere. It will be possible for some bellicose First Lord of the Admiralty to embark upon some Naval expedition, and the defence say that in the case of the Somaliland Expedition, 1920, the House accepted the excuse of secrecy. It will be said: "We could not possibly inform the House, or our plans would have been given away." Hon. Members can support me with complete safety, because there is no question of patriotism. The expedition is admitted to have been necessary, and it has been successful. We are, however, up against a grave constitutional issue, and I hope that I shall be supported in my Amendment.