§ MR. M'COANasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the pretension of M. de Lesseps to an exclusive right of canal-way across the Isthmus of Suez was raised or considered either before the International Commission at Constantinople, which, in 1874, authorised the surtax, or during the negotiations for the purchase of the Canal Shares by Her Majesty's Government in 1875; and, whether, in fact, the claim in question has ever been put forward by M. de Lesseps, or has been in any way acknowledged by any Government of Her Majesty until the present month?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEThe question does not appear to have been raised on either of the occasions mentioned by the hon. Member; nor has it, as far as I am aware, been the subject of official Correspondence in former years.