§ MR. PIERPOINT (Warrington)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to a statement made 1693 in The British Medical Journal of 8th July, that the Nile has been and is habitually poisoned with human and other filth, and the labours of the Irrigation Department have unhappily tended towards augmenting the concentration of the poisonous masses; whether this statement referred to the Barrage, and the possible construction of further dams in the bed of the river in order to have water for summer irrigation, which, even if they serve for raising crops, are poisonous to human beings; and whether, in view of the British interests at stake, both in life and money, in the traffic passing through the Suez Canal, representations will be made to the Egyptian Government against any further pollution of the Ismailia Canal, on which the entire water supply of Port Said and Suez depends?
§ SIR E. GREYI had not seen the statement in The British Medical Journal; but, according to the information at our disposal, it is not borne out by the facts. The operations of the Irrigation Department have not added to the amount of pollution, but they have increased the volume of water in the Ismailia Canal. If it can be shown that any subsequent operations will seriously alter the present state of the water supply, the matter will, no doubt, receive attention.