§ MR. HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he can state whether either France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, or Holland, are debarred by Foreign Treaties from concluding any com- 1021 mercial arrangements with their Colonies, which may be deemed mutually advantageous; and if it is a fact that in France a Council is now sitting, with Colonial representatives, to discuss mutual trade and other questions; and that in the German possessions in East Africa a special preferential tariff has been adopted for German subjects?
§ SIR J. FERGUSSONThere are several Treaties, e.g. between France and Portugal, Spain and Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal, reciprocally guaranteeing most favoured nation privileges in their respective Colonies, subject to the reservations required by the special system to which those possessions are subject. It is the fact that a Council has been appointed in France with Colonial representatives in order to assist by their discussion the Colonial Administration. No special differential tariff has been adopted in the German possessions in East Africa.