§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSON (Manchester, N.E.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government have yet been able to obtain the assent of the Sublime Porte to erect the four lighthouses at the southern extremity of the Red Sea which are necessary for the security of the navigation, and whether any steps have been taken towards erecting a lighthouse at the eastern end of the Gulf of Aden; if no hope be entertained of such arrangement, will Her Majesty's Government consider the propriety of placing lightships near the most dangerous points of Abu Ail and the Mocha Shoal; and, whether the sum 1536 of £40,000 has been surrendered by the Egyptian Government from the excess of light dues hitherto levied by them; and, if so, to what purpose it is being applied?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir EDWARD GREY,) Northumberland, BerwickA decree issued by His Highness the Khedive of Egypt on this subject was published in the London Gazette of the 12th February last. By this Decree the Egyptian Government surrender from and after the year 1894 an annual sum of £E40,000 of the excess of light dues hitherto levied. It is expected that out of this amount a sum of about £60,000 will be available for the construction of new lights in the Red Sea, but the arrangements to be made for this purpose have not yet been completed.