§ SIR EARDLEY WILMOTasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether, in 1423 making the Agreement with France that the Military Occupation of Egypt by England should be continued till the 1st of January 1888, any decision had been come to by Her Majesty's Government as to the retention or abandonment, total or partial, of the Soudan?
MR. GLADSTONEThe question of the Soudan has never been touched upon or treated in the preliminary communications with France. They refer only to the territory of Egypt Proper, and the Soudan is not included in that territory.
§ SIR EARDLEY WILMOTThe right hon. Gentleman has not answered the Question, whether any decision has been come to by Her Majesty's Government?
MR. GLADSTONEWith respect to the decision of Her Majesty's Government, I thought it was clear and a matter of notoriety that the advice pressed upon the Government of Egypt was all in favour of the evacuation of the Soudan.