§ MR. BOURKEasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether, notwithstanding the answers that have already been given in this House upon the subject, the Governor General of Angola has caused notice to be given to the agents of the British mail steamers at St. Paul de Loanda that a Portuguese official had been appointed at Banana to put the visé on 19 their bills of health; whether the Governor of Angola had also notified to the agents of British mail steamers the appointment of a Portuguese postmaster at Congo, and stated that all correspondence which those steamers might bring for the Congo was to be delivered to that official; and, whether Her Majesty's Government intend to request the Portuguese Government to instruct the Governor General of Angola to withdraw these orders so far as they affect British vessels, subjects, and mails going to the Congo and to neutral ports outside the possessions of Portugal?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEHer Majesty's Minister at Lisbon has been informed by the Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs that, as there was no direct telegraphic communication between Lisbon and Angola, instructions to the Governor General of that Province, in the terms of the information contained in my reply to the hon. Member for Manchester (Mr. Jacob Bright) on the 23rd ultimo, had been sent by the first vessel leaving for that place. At the request of Her Majesty's Minister, the Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs has further promised to telegraph these instructions to the Portuguese Consul at the Cape of Good Hope, with directions to forward them to Angola.