§ COLONEL SYKESsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, Whether the Foreign Office has received, officially or otherwise, confirmation of the following statement in "The North China Herald and Supreme Court and Consular Gazette" of 15th March 1870:—
From Hankow we have received the strange news that both the English and the United States Consuls, when calling on Viceroy Li, were refused admittance except by the side door, while the acting French Consul was recognized on terms of equality and obtained entrance by the middle or large door. It is just possible that the determined aspect assumed by the French Government on two or three occasions lately had paved the way for its representative at this time. Neither the United States nor the English Consul availed himself of Li's condescension to be visited by the side door;and, whether the Foreign Office will cause inquiry into this matter?
MR. OTWAYreplied that the Foreign Office had received no official intelligence of the circumstance referred to by his hon. and gallant Friend. If, however, his hon. and gallant Friend would take it upon himself to assert that any 632 indignity had been perpetrated upon the Consular officers, it would, of course, be the duty of the Foreign Office to inquire into the matter. He was, however, bound to say that the representations of this nature made by the Chinese newspapers had not always been verified upon inquiry. He might observe that he was not sufficiently versed in the etiquette prevalent in that part of the world to which his hon. and gallant Friend alluded, to know whether admission by a side door instead of a middle or large door could be regarded as an indignity; but he did know that in European Courts it was often a matter of special distinction to be admitted by the side door.