§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDI wish, Sir, to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether it be true that a Treaty has been concluded between France and Cambodia (or that portion of Cambodia which is tributary to Siam), the provisions of which tend to an entire exclusion of all Foreigners from that country 1287 with the exception of the French; and, if so, whether Her Majesty's Government have taken, or intend to take, any steps to secure to British Subjects equal advantages with those obtained by France in that country?
§ MR. LAYARDSir, a treaty has been concluded between France and Cambodia; but I have not seen the treaty, and I am not able to state its provisions exactly. Still there is reason to believe that there are provisions in it which imply that exclusive privileges would be given to French subjects over those of other nations. The matter has been called to the attention of the French Government, and Her Majesty's Government have received an assurance from the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, that if there are provisions in the treaty which bear this interpretation, they have been inserted inadvertently; that it was the desire of the French Emperor that it should bear the most liberal interpretation, and that it should not grant any exclusive privileges. The French Government are willing to deal with all other nations in the matter of treaties with the greatest liberality, and that they should be carried out in the same spirit as treaties entered into by the British nation, namely, that the privileges extended to British subjects should be equally extended to all other nations.