HC Deb 08 March 1883 vol 276 cc1724-5
BARON HENRY DE WORMS

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether Her Majesty's Government has any information about an expedition, consisting of seven ships of war, which is being prepared by the Portuguese Government, and is intended to sail in the course of this month, with instructions to occupy the entire coast from Ambriz to Landan Chinchoxa, North of the Congo; and, if so, whether Her Majesty's Government will give instructions to the Officer in command of the British Squadron on the West Coast to prevent such an occupation of laud, which has hitherto been neutral, to the detriment of British trade; and, whether Her Majesty's Government, before concluding any Treaty which sanctions annexation, by any European Power, of territory on or adjacent to the Congo, will afford an opportunity to the House of expressing its opinion on the advisability of concluding such Treaty?

LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICE

Sir, Her Majesty's Minister at Lisbon was recently informed by the Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs, in answer to an inquiry made by him, that no such force was being prepared, and that while the negotiations with this country were pending no ships would be despatched to the West Coast. As regards the last portion of the hon. Member's Question, I hope to have an opportunity of entering more fully into the subject upon the Motion of my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester (Mr. Jacob Bright).

MR. BOURKE

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Whether it is a fact that the Government of England has for many years past refused to acknowledge the claims of Portugal to the territory north and south of the Congo; whether Papers will be produced showing what the attitude of this Country has been, with regard to this question, for the past seventy years; and, whether Her Majesty's Foreign Minister, Lord Clarendon, wrote as follows to the Portuguese Minister in London in 1853:— It is therefore both manifest and notorious that the African tribes who inhabit the coast line claimed by Portugal, between 5° 12' and 8° S. latitude, are in reality independent, and that the right acquired by Portugal, from priority of discovery, at the end of the fifteenth century, has for a long time been suffered to lapse, owing to the Portuguese Government not having occupied the Country so discovered. In the presence of these facts, the undersigned must repeat the declaration of Her Majesty's Government, that the interests of commerce imperatively required it to maintain the right of unrestricted intercourse with that part of the coast of Western Africa extending between 5° 12' and the 8th degree S. latitude?

LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICE

It is the fact, Sir, that the English. Government have not acknowledged the claims of Portugal to the territory in question. The quotation from Lord Clarendon's despatch, which was laid before Parliament with the Slave Trade Correspondence in 1854, is substantially accurate. Full information as to the attitude of this country is to be found in the annual series of Slave Trade Correspondence, laid from time to time on the Table of the House, and further Papers will be presented to Parliament in regard to the present negotiation.

MR. BOURKE

inquired whether the Papers would contain a recapitulation of Papers that had already been presented, showing the attitude of this country?

LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICE

said, the Papers would relate principally to the present negotiations, but would, no doubt, contain other matters also.