HC Deb 04 July 1882 vol 271 cc1388-90
MR. O'KELLY

asked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether the Government will give an engagement to this House that Arabi Pacha shall not be attacked by British troops, or any act of hostility be undertaken in Egypt by British troops without the sanction of Parliament, and until the Egyptian Policy of the Government has been approved by a vote of this House?

MR. GLADSTONE

This Question has, in substance, been put more than once to me, and I have been obliged to answer it by saying that it is not in our power to give the assurances asked for. I may tell the hon. Member that, while we have both claims and interests of our own, we cannot overlook the fact that the great object of our policy has been to bring the united authority of Europe to bear on the settlement of the Eastern Question.

MR. ASHMEAD-BARTLETT

asked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether his attention has been called to the following statements made by the Alexandria Correspondent of the "Times," in that paper of the 3rd instant:— Egypt is suffering from the delays of diplomacy. If the physicians consult too long they may find there is nothing to save; every day's delay costs the Country £10,000; whether it is a fact that some 40,000 persons, mostly European, have left the Country during the last month of panic and that all business is paralysed; and, whether Her Majesty's Government are now able to inform Parliament that the Conference at Constantinople has come to any satisfactory and effective decision with a view to the termination of the disastrous crisis in Egypt?

MR. GLADSTONE

In reply to the hon. Member, I have to say that I think too much weight ought not to be given to the statements of correspondents in newspapers. In general terms, no doubt, it may be said that there has been a large, or, perhaps, even a vast compulsory emigration from that country, and the number is estimated at 40,000. There can be no doubt, also, that there has been an extensive paralysis of trade and employment in that country. With respect to the latter part of the Question in regard to the Conference, I can only say that the Conference itself passed a Resolution that their proceedings should be secret, and that any accounts which might go forth with reference to it were not to be regarded as authentic, and that the Conference looks to its members to request their respective Governments to maintain secrecy in like manner. To that Her Majesty's Government have agreed, and consequently we cannot enter upon the subject.

BARON HENRY DE WORMS

asked the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether it was the fact, as had been repeatedly stated in the telegrams from Alexandria, that the construction of the earthworks at Alexandria was still going on, and that some of them were armed with heavy artillery directed on the har- bour, notwithstanding the representations which, under instructions from Her Majesty's Government, had been addressed by Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour to the Egyptian military authorities on the subject?

MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving me Notice of this Question, and I trust he will not think me guilty of discourtesy if I say that, in the present circumstances, I must decline to make any statement on the subject.