HC Deb 19 July 1883 vol 281 cc1913-4
MR. BOURKE

I wish to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, with respect to the telegram he has received from Queensland respecting the negotiations with M. de Lesseps, Whether he will lay it on the Table, or whether he can now give to the House its contents?

MR. EVELYN ASHLEY

Sir, the telegram was sent to the Agent General, and not to the Government. It is in these terms— Government proposals re Suez Canal received here with intense dissatisfaction. In form Ministers.

MR. CARBUTT

gave Notice he would ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he would state the number and tonnage of the British ships passing through the Suez Canal in ballast; and, whether the reduction of 2½ francs per ton mentioned in the agreement would apply to ships carrying coal as ballast?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. CHILDERS)

I will try to get the information by Monday.

MR. VILLIERS STUART

said, that on going into Committee of Supply he should move— That, having in view the vast interests involved in the Suez Canal scheme, the late period of the Session, and the impossibility of furnishing to Members of this House in time such information as would qualify them to form a mature judgment on the proposed agreement, it is, in the opinion of this House, expedient to postpone its discussion until the reassembling of Parliament, and meanwhile to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire and report upon all the bearings of the question.

MR. LABOUCHERE

With reference to the statement that fell from the noble Lord the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, respecting the despatch which he said had been received from the Turkish Government, I beg to give Notice that I will ask him whether he has any objection to lay on the Table the Firman granted by the Sultan in 1873 to the Khedive, by which the Khedive was empowered to enter into all Commercial Treaties, and assent to all commercial undertakings, without referring them to the approval of the Porte?

LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICE

I will endeavour to do so to-morrow.