HC Deb 13 August 1896 vol 44 c728
MR. PHILIP STANHOPE (Burnley)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government has received from Le Chevalier Descamps, Belgian Senator and President of the Inter-Parliamentary Arbitration Conference, held in Brussels in 1895, official communication of the scheme adopted by that conference for the constitution of an International Arbitration Tribunal; whether there will be any objection to a copy of the communication and report of Senator Descamps being placed upon the Table of the House; and, whether Her Majesty's Government, in view of the interest at present taken in the question of international arbitration, and the fact that the Inter-Parliamentary Conference is about again to meet in Buda Pesth at the invitation of the Hungarian Parliament, will signify the interest and sympathy which Her Majesty's Government take in the progress of this question, and state the nature of the reply made to Senator Descamps' communication?

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. GEORGE CURZON,) Lancashire, Southport

A copy of Monsieur Descamps' pamphlet on the organisation of international arbitration, to which is annexed a copy of the scheme adopted by the Inter-Parliamentary Conference at Brussels, was forwarded to Her Majesty's Minister at Brussels for presentation to Lord Salisbury, who requested that his thanks might be returned to the author. It would not be in accordance with usage either to present such papers to Parliament or to make any communication on the part of Her Majesty's Government to the Inter-Parliamentary conference at Buda-Pesth.