HC Deb 02 July 1880 vol 253 cc1397-8
MR. RICHARD

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, with reference to the statement made by the First Lord of the Treasury to the effect that an endeavour was made in 1869 by Lord Clarendon, in conjunction with the Government of which the right honourable Gentleman was the head, to set in motion some measure to be at least a beginning of disarmament, Whether there are in the Foreign Office any records of the negotiations that then took place; and, if so, whether there will be any objection to lay them upon the Table of the House?

MR. GLADSTONE

Sir, I made the reference mentioned by my hon. Friend, as he will perfectly well understand, not in the nature of any contentious or polemical argument in defence of the Government; but, as I may with truth say, historically and for the purpose of paying what I thought was a very just tribute of honour to the memory of a very distinguished statesman and a most valued Colleague. Therefore it was that I felt myself justified in making that reference to his memory. The exact state of the case is this. The records show that I was mistaken in giving the date as 1869; it should have been 1870. In the Foreign Office are to be found records of the proceedings which concern the communication between Lord Clarendon and the Government of the Emperor of the French. The ulterior portion of the proceedings—the communications between Lord Clarendon and the German Government—are not to be found in the Foreign Office. I have no doubt whatever of what the meaning of that is—namely, that Lord Clarendon, with very good judgment and discretion, having to make a proposal to the German Government, determined to feel his way in the first instance unofficially, and, as I intimated in the debate, he then discovered that no practical progress could be made. In these circumstances, and, indeed, on general grounds, I hope my hon. Friend will not press for the production of these Papers, which are in the Foreign Office, and which are essentially one-sided. Moreover, the production of them might possibly seem like raising some controversy, or casting some imputations on the one Government or the other. That was as far as possible from my intention, for I do not think that any fair ground for imputation rests on one side or the other.