HC Deb 20 March 1882 vol 267 cc1273-4
SIR H. DRUMMOND WOLFF

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the attention of Her Majesty's Government has been called to a paragraph in "The Standard" of March 14th, headed "Mr. Errington's Mission," in which the following passages occur, They" (the rulers of the Church) "reply that … Mr. Errington led them to hope that a Mission in regular form might be established (and this, as may be remembered, I had from the lips of the Cardinal Secretary); and it is, moreover, asserted that there are, in the Secretary's Office at the Vatican, documentary proofs of the wish of the English Cabinet to establish such a Mission, and of their opinion of its expediency and usefulness; and, whether there is any truth in these statements?

SIR CHARLES W. DILKE

Sir, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, and I myself have stated on several occasions that Her Majesty's Government have made no proposal or request to the Vatican. I have, therefore, some doubt whether I am acting with perfect self-respect in consenting to give any further answer to the hon. Member; but I had better, perhaps, say, once for all, that the correspondent quoted is entirely mistaken in supposing that Her Majesty's Government have expressed any such wish as that named in the Question.