§ MR. WILLIAM M'ARTHUR (Cornwall, Mid)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if his attention has been called to a resolution passed by the Australasian Federal Council, in which they express their anxiety at the course of events in Samoa, and impress upon Her Majesty's Government the extreme importance to British and Australian interests of maintaining such treaties as exist, or concluding additional treaties guaranteeing the independence of the Samoan and Tongan groups; and, whether he is yet prepared to state to the House the names of the English Commissioners to the Berlin Conference on Samoan Affairs?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir J. FERGUSSON,) Manchester, N.E.The Resolution in question was communicated to Her Majesty's Government. The Council also asked to be supplied with copies of existing Treaties bearing on the subject, which was done, and the Colonial Governments were assured that Her Majesty's Government were fully sensible of the importance of the Imperial and Colonial interests involved in the groups of Islands referred to. I am not yet in a position to state the names of the British Commissioners to the forth—coming Conference.