§ MR. HOGANI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has observed that during a recent interview, reported in The New Zealand Herald, Baron von Pilsach, who was appointed President of the Municipal Council of Samoa, in accordance with the provisions of the Berlin Treaty, and has now retired from that office, declared it to be the general opinion that annexation by one of the Powers would be the best thing that could happen to Samoa; and whether, in the course of his communications with the Treaty Powers respecting the future government of Samoa, he will give due prominence to this suggestion, and urge its adoption in the interests of the British subjects who now constitute the most important element of the European population in Samoa?
§ * SIR E. GREYI cannot say whether this report is authentic. In any case, it does not clearly appear which Power either Baron von Pilsach or the hon. Member would wish to annex Samoa; and it is not possible for any one of the three Powers interested to make proposals on the basis of such, a rumour.