§ MR. ANDERSONasked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether, on the 9th November, when the Prime Minister spoke at the Guildhall, the Government had received information of the Czar's assurance of his wish to give all due respect to the stipulations of the Treaty of Berlin, as communicated to the British Embassy by the Russian Minister on the 9th November, but published by Her Majesty's Government here only on the 13th?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERI have made inquiries as to the exact time of the receipt of the communication to which the hon. Member's Question refers, and I find that the communication was telegraphed from St. Petersburg by Her Majesty's Ambassador on the 9th of November at half-past 6 in the afternoon, was delivered at the Foreign Office a few minutes before 10 on that evening, and afterwards had to be deciphered—because it came in cypher—at the Office. 525 Therefore, the Prime Minister was not informed of it when he spoke at Guildhall.