MR. CURZONI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether from 1st October next the carrying trade between Algeria and France will be exclusively confined to French vessels, Great Britain, in common with other Foreign Powers, having surrendered her right of participation; whether he is aware that the bulk of the trade is carried in British ships; whether, had any single Power withheld its sanction, the trade must, in virtue of existing Treaties, have remained open to all flags; and for what reasons the above concession has been made?
§ *SIR E. GREYWe have not been informed that the change as to the carrying trade between France and Algeria is to take effect on the 1st October. In 1889, the French Legislature passed a law which restricted this navigation to vessels under the French Flag, and the French Government intimated most positively that they must terminate any Treaty which prevented the application of it. Under the circumstances, Her Majesty's Government agreed to modify one clause of the Treaty of 1882 to the extent required rather than to terminate the whole Treaty. The figures for 1890 show that, so far from the bulk of the trade being carried in British ships, 93 per cent, of the shipping engaged in the trade was French, and only 2 per cent, was British.