HC Deb 19 May 1881 vol 261 c806
SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If any steps have been taken in consequence of the correspondence regarding the concession to Abyssinia of a free port in the Red Sea; and, if he will lay that correspondence, which took place in the year 1877, between the Earl of Derby and Her Majesty's Consul General in Egypt, upon the Table of the House?

SIR CHARLES W. DILKE

Sir, no steps have been taken to obtain for Abyssinia a port in the Red Sea, and Her Majesty's Agent in Egypt reported that there was no evidence to show that the Abyssinians, who did not claim a port, and could not manage it if possessed by them, wore desirous of obtaining one.