§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the Government are now in a position to furnish any further information respecting the negotiations with China relative to the action of the Australian Governments in restricting the immigration of Chinese; has he any objection to lay on the Table of the House a copy of the despatch of the Envoy of China to Lord Salisbury, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and the reply of the Prime Ministers of New South Wales and Victoria to that document; is he aware that that correspondence has already been printed and published by the Australasian Governments; and is the correspondence between the Australian Governments and the Home Government conducted through the Agents General of the several Colonies, or direct between the Foreign and Colonial Offices and the Governors of those Colonies?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JAMES FERGUSSON) (Manchester, N.E.)The Correspondence on this subject is being printed, and will shortly be presented. In the meantime it is not expedient to publish portions of it. I am not aware that some portions have already been published in Australia, but it is very probable. I am informed that the correspondence with the Australian Governments is conducted in the usual way—that is to say, be- 752 tween the Secretary of State and the Governors.