§ SIR WILLIAM M'ARTHURasked the First of the Treasury, If the statement in The Pall Mall Gazette of Monday the 9th inst. is correct, viz.:—
That Her Majesty's Government has surrendered Huon Bay in New Guinea to the German Government, and that the line of demarcation between England and Germany in New Guinea will be latitude 8 south of the equator?
MR. GLADSTONEThe case stands thus:—There was a claim or desire on 889 the part of the German Government to annex the whole of what is known as the North and North-Eastern Coast of New Guinea. Of course, I do not speak of the portion that is subject to the Dutch. On the 2nd of this month Her Majesty's Government repeated an offer, which they had previously made on the 7th of February, to settle in a friendly manner with Germany the best point on the North-Eastern Coast for fixing the boundary between the German Protectorate and that portion of the Coast the Protectorate of which was assumed by England. The negotiations on this subject have commenced, and have advanced in a satisfactory manner; but they have not reached the stage at which a positive statement can be made as to the details or the particular point at which the boundary is to be fixed. The House may rest assured that the aim of Her Majesty's Government is to secure, in addition to the South Coast, which has already been appropriated in a certain sense, a fair division of the Northern Coast of New Guinea.
§ MR. WILLIAM REDMONDasked, whether this was the way in which Her Majesty's Government showed their appreciation of the recent offers of the Australian Colonies to send troops to the Soudan; and whether Her Majesty's Government had not conceded to Germany the right of annexing parts of New Guinea which the Queensland Colony and the other Australian Colonies had desired to annex?