HC Deb 31 July 1868 vol 193 cc1940-1
MR. OTWAY

said, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether he has received any information as to a projected offensive and defensive alliance between France, Belgium, and Holland, or of any combination of those powers, for purposes hostile to Prussia and Germany?

LORD STANLEY

said, in reply, that he had yesterday seen the Belgian Minister upon the subject to which the Question related; and he, Baron Dujardin, was authorized by his Government to state, that so far as Belgium is concerned, there is no foundation whatever for the report to which the Question of the hon. Member referred. He understood no proposition of the kind comprised in the Question had been made by France or Belgium, either officially or unofficially. He had received from the Hague a similar statement—namely, that the report was unfounded—but couched in more general terms.