§ MR. JENNINGS (Stockport)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the Government are aware that great losses are inflated upon British traders by the refusal of our Military Forces in Upper Egypt to allow merchandise to pass the frontier; that the markets of the Soudan for cotton and other goods, actually ordered from Lancashire and Cheshire to supply the demands of the Natives, are thus practically closed to our merchants; that these merchants have repeatedly undertaken to submit their goods to the closest examination, in order that no war material may be passed through, but that the customers and the traders are still kept apart by British bayonets; and, whether the Government will issue orders which will have the effect of promptly removing these restrictions?
THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JAMES FERGUSSION) (Manchester, N.E.)Her Majesty's Government are well aware of the loss to British trade owing to the blockade of the Soudan; and in the interest of Egypt, as well as of England, they have been very desirous of re-opening commercial intercourse. The object sought is, of course, the pacification of the country; and we have every reason to believe that the stoppage of trade creates a desire for peace. It has been difficult to ascertain whether that desire has become sufficiently strong; but the question is at this moment under careful consideration, and Her Majesty's Government will procure the removal of the restrictions at the earliest moment at which a beneficial result may appear probable.