§ MR. CRAWFORDsaid, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether any arrangements had been made or conventions entered into by or on behalf of Her Majesty's Government with any Companies, Individuals, or Foreign Governments, for establishing telegraphic communications with Egypt and India; and whether any negotiations were now pending, and with whom, in reference thereto? He would also further ask whether the Government would be prepared to 138 inform the House of the terms and conditions of any conventions into which they might enter.
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONSir, Her Majesty's Government have been in communication with the Government of Austria on the subject of a telegraphic line, to be established from Ragusa to Alexandria, but the conditions which the Austrian Government wished to attach were, some of them, such that Her Majesty's Government could not with propriety agree to, and, therefore, the negotiation has dropped and no arrangements have been made. I may, however, state what those conditions were. One of them was, that the British Government should engage to use no other line but that for its communications with India; another was, that we should undertake to continue the line from Suez to India. The first condition was one which we did not consider it advisable to enter into, and the second was a condition which we did not see our way easily to fulfil. The negotiation is consequently for the present at an end. At the same time, I am not without hopes that the Austrian Government may themselves establish a line of communication from Ragusa, because it is obvious it would be advantageous to them to do so; and, should such a line be made, we would, of course, be willing to pay for the use of it, as it would be also desirable for us to have such a mode of communication. I may as well state, also, that the Turkish Government proposes to establish a line of electric telegraph from Constantinople or from the opposite shore to the head of the Persian Gulf, in the hope that if it is established Her Majesty's Government or the East India Company might carry it on from Bussorah to Kurrachee.