Search 200 years of speeches from British parliament

[Panderim]

http://www.hansard-corpus.org/x.asp - this only gives you a brief context, if you want full speech then do additional search on here: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/index.html

"The first thing I should like to put to the representative of the Colonial Office on the present occasion is, What has become of those negotiations, and why have they not led to peace? I myself take a great personal interest in the Mullah of Somaliland, who some ten years ago was called the "Mad Mullah," though he appears to be no more mad than any hon Member of this House. He is a man of ability, because he has carried on a struggle against the forces of the British Empire for ten or twelve years, in which, I am bound to say, he has uniformly come off best. This gentleman has maintained throughout the whole of the ten years that he is very much ill-used person, and that he wants to remain at peace with mankind if allowed. The British Government has sent against the Mullah of Somaliland no less than three expeditions. I cannot without a great deal of research bring before the House the exact figures, but I have taken part in every Debate on the question of Somaliland during the last twelve years, and I have a fair recollection of the sums of money voted by this House on this matter. I venture to say that the Mullah of Somaliland has cost this country at least £4,000,000 of money. What have we got to show for this £4,000,000? Absolutely nothing. Two expeditions of British troops, or Indian troops led by British officers, have been more or less cut to pieces and annihilated by the Mullah. We were told over and over again that he and his force had been completely exterminated, but he has never been caught—or, rather I should say, he has been caught two or three times, but he "turned Turk" upon his pursuers, who got the worst of the encounter. For the most part, these expeditions spend their time flying through the most appalling, waterless and burning region on the whole face of the globe, with infinite cost of men and money and unfortunate cattle. Parties come and parties go in this House, but the Mad Mullah goes on for ever. This is the third Government that has undertaken an expedition of this character, I have never been able to extract from any Colonial Minister a coherent or rational statement of what it is they want to do with the Mullah. He lives in one of the most inhospitable countries in the whole world, waterless, very difficult to traverse, and with a temperature quite as hot as that of any stokehold: a subject referred 1022 to to-day at question time. What it is that the Government wants in chasing this man through his torrid region I can never understand or make out. At any rate, we have expended about four millions of money, and we have gained absolutely nothing.

I remember that the House was very much amused, and a great deal of laughter arose, when Colonel Seely, representing the Colonial Office, read out a communication in reply to a question by me which he had received from the Mad Mullah. I really think the Mad Mullah had the best of the matter in that communication. He said he could not understand why he was being hunted and persecuted. He said also that the British had nothing to get from him, while, if they continued, he should get their cattle. That is the history of these transactions, because I noticed the other day that in spite of this enormous expenditure of money that the Mad Mullah made a raid and carried off 20,000 cattle. We are called on now to vote another £96,000, and I want to know where it is going to stop. I made a suggestion, at least ten years ago, that this gentleman ought to be offered, say £2,000 per year, and then he would keep quiet. I do not really know that he has been doing any harm when let alone. I am perfectly certain that for a modest sum he would become entirely friendly to the British Government. And observe the saving it would be supposing you paid this gentleman, as is the custom of the Government in India to pay along the frontier subsidies to tribes as long as they keep quiet, whereas you have spent £4,000,000 and many lives in chasing him, and for what purpose I never could find out. I ask, therefore, the right hon. Gentleman who is to speak for the Colonial Office, to give us, if he can, a rational statement why these expeditions and why this quarrel should be pursued as long as the siege of Troy, and for what purpose this £96,000 is now required. I beg to move. "

Thought I'd start with the obvious but now searching about Barre.

"My Lords, I will be very interested to learn whether Her Majesty's Government have had any further thoughts regarding their policy towards the Horn of Africa and its neighbouring countries and ocean. Since I asked that question in June this year, during the last Session, certain events have taken place. Early in July Somalia was invaded by Ethiopia. At the outset every endeavour was made to give the impression that this was the work of Somali dissidents who were only aided by Ethopia, these dissidents being under the impression that they had only to enter Somalia for the Government of President Siad Barre to fall. In this they were totally mistaken. The Somali people, whether or not they like the Government they have, certainly do not wish for any Government that is supported by Ethiopia, and they have made that completely plain.

The invasion that took place was one of the acts that has taken place under the tripartite pact of Aden, Libya, South Yemen and Ethiopia working together. The object of this pact is to create revolutionary cooperation; the purpose is to create disability and insecurity for all its neighbours. That is its purpose."

[Panderim]

This dude John Burns is pretty great:

*VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: The object of the expedition is to defeat the Mullah and to destroy his power. If there is any chance of his power being destroyed without an expedition, no one will be more delighted than the Government. I am bound to say that I do not think the expedition can be avoided. The situation has become intolerable. This man's barbarity injures our trade; and hurts our subjects, and he must be destroyed. The Mullah was originally a religious leader, but his religious character has disappeared and his barbarity and tyranny remain.

*MR. JOHN BURNS (Battersea): thought the House of Commons was very, much indebted to the hon. Member for ' getting this information from the noble Lord. It was all very well for him to say that this Mullah was mad—

*VISCOUNT CRANBORNE: I have never the used word "mad" in the whole course of these proceedings.

*MR. JOHN BURNS:said that perhaps in the mind of the noble Lord he was something worse than mad—he was religious. He wished to deal with the statement of the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the effect that in the neighbourhood of Somaliland a native chief had arisen who had become a nuisance to British interests. He had become such a nuisance that he had to be hunted down at all cost. If the noble Lord thought that this hunting of Mullahs could go on indefinitely east, west, north, and south, in the present strained condition of the finances of the British Empire, then he had embarked upon an expedition the end of which no man could see and the cost of which the British taxpayers would seriously resent if the Government were to give them an opportunity. They resented Mullah hunting in general and the Somaliland one in particular. The noble Lord stated that this expedition was going on, and would go on until this Mullah was destroyed. But they were not going to destroy this Mullah and his power so easily. He started this game in 1896, and in 1899 he became serious. He presumed that the Mullah was an Arab and had paid a visit to Mecca, and in consequence some disagreement had ensued. Therefore, he came back from Mecca and became a nuisance. He was accused of stealing cattle, but there were British subjects in other parts of Africa who were engaged in that occupation at the present time. Did the Government also propose to destroy the cattle stealers there? The chief offence of this man was that, under the, guise of religious inspiration, this religious enthusiast had started "lifting" the cattle of his neighbours. But that was a, congenial and reciprocal pastime in Somaliland. His fellow-countrymen north of the Tweed indulged in the same pastime 200 years ago. Cattle stealing was a tribal pastime, in Africa, almost as popular as foxhunting and breaking down farmers' fences was in this country. Surely that was no reason why they should kill the men who indulged in it. They appeared to have determined to rout out of Africa every tribe that showed courage, every chief who displayed independence, and every native community which had courageously determined to stick to their own language, religion, habits and customs, and if England continued this policy much longer these oppressed people would join together in one common cause, and a, condition of things in Africa would arise which all the European Powers combined would not be able to overcome and subdue. They tried the same thing on with the Mahdi. and then they transferred their attention to Kruger and to Steyn, and they would have liked to have done the same thing with Menelik, but he was too strong. The Italians tried to do the same thing, and he rejoiced to think that the Abyssinians wiped out the demoralised Italians at Adowa.

[Basra-]

Panderim thank you!


Can I access speech as far as 1780s???? During Pitt and Fox? Hhhmmmmm Yum Yum--- I have some reading to do. Orgasms.