§ MR. HUNTER (Aberdeen, N.)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether it is a fact that a Protocol was signed in Santiago, on the 11th of April last, between Senor Don Augusto Mattè, Chilian Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Hugh Fraser, Esq., Her Majesty's Minister, resident in Chili, relating to the terms of a contract known as the Grace-Aranîbar Contract, recently entered into between the Peruvian Bondholders Committee and the Government of Peru; if it is a fact that in that Protocol it is clearly represented that Chili will submit to no departure from the terms of her Treaty of Peace with Peru, and that Mr. Fraser, in signing the Protocol, assented thereto; whether, since the said Protocol was signed, Her Majesty's Government has received any other proposals in writing from the Chilian Government for a settlement of the claims of Peruvian bondholders; and, whether Her Majesty's Government will lay upon the Table of the House the said Protocol, and the other proposals, if any, of the Chilian Government?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Sir JOHN GORST) (Chatham)Perhaps the hon. Member will allow me to answer this Question. On the 12th of April last Mr. Fraser announced that the Chilian Government had made confidential proposals to Her Majesty's Government for the amendment of the Articles of the Grace-Aranîbar Contract to which they had taken exception, and also proposals for the settlement of the claims of the bondholders against Chili. These proposals, so far as relates to the contract, have been transmitted in the form of a Protocol, which was signed by Her Majesty's Minister at Santiago ad referendum; and the Chilian Government, in a separate document, have submitted certain bases of arrangement for a combined settlement of the bondholders' claims on Chili and Peru. The proposals, being confidential, cannot be laid on the Table.