HC Deb 03 June 1892 vol 5 cc543-4
MR. MACLEAN (Oldham)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, seeing that in the proposed Provisional Regulations the Suez Canal Company restrict their authorisation for the passage of bulk petroleum steamers on the canal to vessels built under Lloyd's and Bureau Veritas Registers, thereby excluding all vessels built under the Registers of Austria and Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, the United States, and Norway, he will now see in this a locus standi for Her Majesty's Government to interfere and prevent force and effect being given to the Provisional Regulations, and whether the Inter-Departmental Committee appointed by the British Government called attention to this exclusion; and whether the attention of the Maritime Powers has been called to this alleged misuse of its charter by the Suez Canal Company?

MR. J. W. LOWTHER

The condition which the Suez Canal Company must observe is to treat the flags of all nations equally. If this condition is not satisfied by the Provisional Regulations, it would not be for Her Majesty's Government, but for the Government of the Power which considers its interests to be injured, to take such steps as may be necessary. The consideration of this question did not fall within the scope of the functions of the Inter-Departmental Committee.

MR. JOHN KELLY (Camberwell, N.)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, having regard to the fact that the petition against the admission of petroleum tank steamers into the Suez Canal was signed by nearly all the English firms of shipowners, Her Majesty's Government, as representing the nation having four-fifths of the whole of the traffic through the canal, would be willing to use its influence, as by far the largest shareholder, to obtain the withdrawal of the provisional regulations recently issued by the Board of Directors of the Canal Company?

MR. J. W. LOWTHER

There has been no petition against the admission of petroleum tank steamers into the Suez Canal. The petitions presented to Her Majesty's Government have been against the regulations under which the passage of petroleum tank steamers is to be conducted. If the action suggested by the hon. Member were to be successful, and if the provisional regulations were withdrawn, petroleum tank steamers would claim to pass through the canal without any regulations whatever.