§ SIR GEORGE BADEN-POWELL (Liverpool, Kirkdale)I beg to ask the ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1) whether, when the Island of Matacong was taken possession of by France in consequence of its cession under the Convention of 1882, confirmed by the Agreement of 1889, the French Government must be taken to have had notice of the existence of private proprietary rights in the island belonging to British subjects; (2) whether the French Government, in the desire impartially to investigate these private rights, decided that particular claims must be proved before the local tribunals, and the proofs demanded in this case were duly delivered to the French Authorities in June 1893; and (3) whether the French Government have yet reported to Her Majesty's Government what is the decision that has been arrived at; if not, whether any steps can be taken to expedite a settlement, seeing that it is two years since the legal inquiry was commenced?
§ *SIR E. GREYNo special reservation of private proprietary rights was ever made, but the French Government have never denied that such rights would be valid if they could be properly proved. The answer to the second paragraph of the question is in the affirmative. No decision has yet been, given by the French Government on the papers submitted to them.
In reply to a further question by Sir G. BADEN-POWELL,
§ *SIR E. GREYsaid, the question had formed the subject of communications to the French Government, who were quite aware of the desire that a decision should he come to.