§ MR. BOURKE (Lyme Regis)I beg to ask the right hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, When the Papers promised to-day in "another place" with regard to Greece will be in the hands of Members of this House? I also wish to ask, What part of the Greek coast is blockaded; whether all the Powers have joined in the blockade; and whether a state of war might not be said to exist between Greece and the Powers in consequence of this blockade; and if only a portion of Greece is blockaded, on what principle did it affect that portion of Greece?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. BRYCE) (Aberdeen, S.)I have this afternoon laid on the Table of the House the Papers to which the Questions of the right hon. Gentleman refer—namely, the Collective Notes and the answers of the Greek Government thereto, together with copies of the notices of blockade. I hope they may be in the hands of Members in a very few days. As regards the blockade, it applies to the whole of the East Coast of Greece. It begins at Cape Malea and extends to Cape Colonna, and thence to the frontier between Turkey and Greece on the Northern border of Thessaly. It also covers, on the West Coast, the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth. All the Powers have joined in the notice of blockade except France, and no state of war exists between this country or any of the Powers and Greece. No question of war arises, as the blockade is what is known in International Law as a pacific blockade. [Laughter.] Those 570 hon. Members who laugh can hardly remember that a blockade of this kind was proclaimed against Greece in 1850, and that it did not affect neutrals at all. So the present blockade affects Greek ships only, and does not imply capture, but simply the detention of vessels seeking to break the blockade. It, in fact, prevents commercial intercourse between Greek and other ports by means of ships flying the Greek flag.
§ MR. JOSEPH COWEN (Newcastle-on-Tyne)asked where the Greek Fleet was, and whether it was included in this limited blockade?