§ BARON HENRY DE WORMSasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether any report has been received from Her Majesty's Consul at Tunis, relative to the alleged outbreak on the Tunisian frontier; and, if so, whether he can communicate such information to the House?
§ MR. MONTAGUE GUESTasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the attention of Her Majesty's Government has been directed to a Protocol of the Sublime Ottoman Porto of the 28th of July, 1868, which explicitly declares all foreigners pos- 765 sessing real property throughout all the Turkish Dominion to be subject to the local Courts and local laws, even where all parties interested are foreigners; whether Her Majesty's Government has always recognized the Regency of Tunis as an integral part of the Ottoman Empire; and, if Her Majesty's Government officially congratulated the Bey in 1871 on his obtaining from the Sultan a firman ratifying and confirming that position; whether this Protocol has been laid before the Law Officers of the Crown with the Papers on the Enfida case, and if they have arrived at any decision; and, if Her Majesty's Government will now lay the Papers upon the Table?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKEHer Majesty's Government have received no Report as to the disturbances on the Tunisian Frontier. With regard to the Question of my hon. Friend the Member for Wareham, I may state that the Protocol in question has been referred to the Law Officers, whose Report has not yet been received. Tunis has always been recognized as a vassal State; but it possesses the right of self-government, and of concluding with foreign Powers Treaties not of a political or military character. The case has not yet reached a point at which Papers can with advantage be laid before the House.