§ MR. ANDERSONasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, If any reply has been sent by Her Majesty's Government to a message for- 14 warded by the Governor General from the Privy Council of Canada, sympathising with Irish distress, and desiring to co-operate for its relief; if it be the fact that the measure offered by Canada is, that the Imperial Government should subsidise an emigration scheme that is to cost £80 per family, while Canada is to get the benefit of the new labour, but to bear no part of the pecuniary cost, and do nothing beyond what she now does for all other immigrants; if it be the fact that part of the British Government subsidy would, under the scheme, be applied in paying the Canadian Government a patent fee of £2 for each grant of land, while that land was ceded to Canada by Britain free; and, if the foregoing allegations are well founded, whether Her Majesty's Government will, in any negotiations that may follow, propose a more equal arrangement?
MR. GRANT DUFFSir, in reply to my hon. Friend's first Question, I have to say that the Governor General of the Dominion has been informed that the matter has been referred to the Irish Government. In reply to his second and third Questions, I have to say that, as I read the despatch, the offer of the Dominion Government is a very much more liberal one than he supposes. In reply to his fourth Question, I have to say that I make no doubt that, if further negotiations take place, Her Majesty's Government will be as desirous as I am sure that the Dominion Government will be that the arrangements made should be fair to all parties.