§ MR. BRISCOEsaid, he would beg to ask the noble Viscount the First Lord of the Treasury what arrangements had been entered into by the Government for establishing a telegraphic communication with India viâ the Euphrates or the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONA communication by the Euphrates was undertaken by a private Company with certain contingent engagements, on the part of the Government and the East India Company; 2093 but we have heard within the last few days that the Turkish Government has not given permission to lay that line down. That decision may hereafter be reversed, but so it stands at present. With regard to the line by the Isthmus of Suez and down the Red Sea, and so across to Kurrachee, there, is a private Company, I believe, that contemplates such an arrangement, and as far as it may be in the power of the Government, without the assistance of Parliament to aid them to make use of that line, we shall be glad to give them all the assistance in our power.