§ MR. FENWICK (Northumberland, Wansbeck)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can inform the House what regulations were considered by the Inter-Departmental Committee at the Foreign Office in December last in relation to the proposed provisional regulations for the transport of bulk petroleum in the Suez Canal; what additions were framed by the said Committee with the object of safeguarding navigation, but only part of which were accepted by the Suez Canal Company; and to define the substance of such recommendations as were made by the Inter-Departmental Committee and which were declined by the Suez Canal Company?
*MR. J. W. LOWTHERIt would be impossible to reply to the hon. Member's questions within the limits usually assigned to an answer. The several matters as to which the hon. Member inquires will appear clearly from the Papers which are being prepared.
§ MR. FENWICKWill these Papers be laid on the Table before Whitsuntide?
§ MR. D. RANDELL (Glamorgan, Gower)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in regard to the proposed authorisation of the passage of bulk petroleum through the Suez Canal, which in the opinion of English experts threatens the security and safety of navigation in the Canal, whether, in view of Article 8 of the Convention between Great Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, and Turkey, respecting the free navigation of the Suez Maritime Canal, signed at Constantinople 29th October, 1888, in which it is laid down that the agents in Egypt of the Signatory Powers of the present Treaty shall be charged to watch over its execution, in case of any event threatening the security or the free passage of the Canal, and that they shall inform the Khedival Government of the danger which they may have perceived, in order that that Government may 1907 take proper steps to ensure the protection and the free use of the Canal, Her Majesty's Government will instruct its agent in Egypt to call the attention of the Egyptian Government to the threatened dangers as aforesaid?
*MR. J. W. LOWTHERThe only ground for interference, under the Convention referred to, by any of the Signatory Powers thereto, is the occurrence of—
Any event threatening the security or the free passage of the Canal." By Article 1 "The Suez Maritime Canal shall always be free, and open in time of war as in time of peace, to every vessel of commerce or of war without distinction of flag. Consequently the High Contracting Parties agree not in any way to interfere with the free use of the Canal in time of war as in time of peace. The Canal shall never be subjected to the exercise of the right of blockade.In the opinion of Her Majesty's Government the passage of petroleum tank ships under the regulations issued by the Suez Canal Company does not threaten "the security or the free passage of the Canal," and consequently Her Majesty's Government have no ground for interference.