§ SIR WILFRID LAWSONasked the Secretary of State for India, Whether the important Despatches on the Chefoo Convention, which the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs was expecting when he received the Deputation from the Anti-Opium Society on the 14th of June, have been yet received; and, if so, whether he is able to state their purport?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKEI regret that the despatches referred to by the hon. Baronet have not been received; and, in justification of the statements made by my noble Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and myself, I may state that on the 6th of May Sir Thomas Wade telegraphed that the re- 361 port in question would be forwarded by the French mail leaving Shanghai on the 19th of that month. As it had not reached the Foreign Office at the end of July, Sir Thomas Wade was instructed to inform Lord Granville when it had been despatched; and in a telegram received on the 11th instant he states that "the report is not yet complete, but will be forwarded at once, with explanation of delay."