§ MR. M'COANasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the Foreign Office has received any information corroborating a private telegram from Constantinople in an evening paper, which stated that the Porte had ordered the Governor General of Smyrna to oppose the sale of the Smyrna quays to an English Company, by interposing the Porte's alleged right of pre-emption under the original Convention; and whether any such right on the part of the Porte of frustrating the sale of this property in fact existed?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKESir, no information has been received at the Foreign Office in confirmation of the telegram to which my hon. Friend 337 refers. The terms of the Convention which appears in the Correspondence respecting the Smyrna quays recently laid before Parliament do not contain any clause reserving to the Porte the right of pre-emption.