§ SIR HARRY VERNEYasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether Her Majesty's Government accept the statement of M. Ferry to Lord Lyons, Despatch 50, received 257 July 16th, 1884, as true, that there has been a retrocession on the part of England of the Island of Madagascar to France, and that England has abandoned all claims ("pretensions") to the island?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEIf my hon. Friend will examine the despatch which he quotes he will see that the statement alluded to was not made by M. Ferry to Lord Lyons, but is the heading given to an annexe to the Report of the Madagascar Committee of the French Chamber. As regards the retrocession of Madagascar to France, the passage in question refers to what took place in 1816, when the British Government restored to France the establishments on the coast which had belonged to her before the war.