§ MR. JOSEPH NOLANI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that there is only one steamer afloat which purports to comply with the Provisional Regulations of the Suez Canal Company, that that steamer belongs to a syndicate, that she was contracted for before the Provisional Regulations were issued, and that, in regard to all the other tank steamers, about a hundred, the Provisional Regulations are so arranged as to debar their passage; and whether, in view of the international question now raised in the Courts of Egypt, this one steamer will be allowed to pass the Canal under the Provisional Regulations, while the other ninety-nine are debarred, pending the decision of the Egyptian Courts?
THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. J. W. LOWTHER,) Cumberland,1731 Penrith There are no statistics of the number of steamers which will be affected by the Regulations in question in the possession of the Foreign Office. The regulation of the transit of these vessels is not within the functions of Her Majesty's Government, who exercise no control in the matter.