§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether Mr. Cave's Report is in the possession of the Khedive of Egypt; and, if so, whether Her Majesty's Government will consent to His Highness publishing the parts of the Report which he thinks proper to publish while other parts are kept back?
§ MR. DISRAELIThe text of Mr. Cave's Report, I believe, is not yet in the possession of the Khedive of Egypt. The remainder of the inquiry of the hon. Gentleman is of a hypothetical character, and it is inconvenient, I think, generally to put such questions. The hon. Gentleman asks whether Her Majesty's Government will consent—which implies, of course, a request on the part of His Highness—to publish the parts of the Report which the Khedive thinks proper to publish, while others are kept back? I have to state that no request of that kind has been made by His Highness to the Government.
§ Afterwards—
§ SIR H. DRUMMOND WOLFFasked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer a Question of which he had given him 700 private Notice, Whether he is in a position to state if the information on which Mr. Cave's Report is founded was supplied to him by the Khedive confidentially or with the understanding that the Report was to be published?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF the EXCHEQUERThe Question assumes that the Report was founded solely upon information given by the Khedive. Now, the Report was not founded solely upon information given by the Khedive, but upon that information and other information obtained by my right hon. Friend. It was no part of the duty of my right hon. Friend, in the mission with which he was charged, to prepare a Report for the purpose of being published. He was instructed to obtain certain information for the guidance and information of Her Majesty's Government. In the conversations which he had with the Khedive a good deal of information was given to him by his Highness—some of which, no doubt, was intended to be of a confidential character, while other such information was of a less confidential character.