MR. GIBSON BOWLESI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whether, in December 1895, Her Majesty's Government received a request from the Italian Government to allow Italian troops to be disembarked and to pass through Zeila in order to operate against the Abyssinians, which request was supported by Count Hatzfeldt, the German Ambassador in London; whether the India Office opposed the giving of this consent, but was overruled by Lord Salisbury; whether Lord Salisbury, on 25th February 1896, telegraphed to Aden to authorise the examination by Italian officers of Duncareta roads as an anchorage for Italian vessels of war; whether the delay of this authorisation to that date was due to the opposition of the India Office, which was overruled by Lord Salisbury; whether he can say on what grounds the India Office opposed the landing of Italian troops at Zeila and the examination of the anchorage at Duncareta, and on what grounds Lord Salisbury overruled the opposition; and, whether Her Majesty's Government propose to lay upon the Table of this House the Correspondence on these subjects?
* MR. CURZONCertain facilities were asked for by the Italian Government, which involved a permission to pass through some portions of Her Majesty's Somali Coast Protectorate. After consultation with the Indian Government, Her Majesty's Government expressed their willingness to concur in this suggestion subject to the limitations necessary to prevent it from trenching on the rights of other Powers. No final conclusion was arrived at, but the details of the negotiations involved questions at issue with the Governments of Italy and France, and the de facto Government of Harrar, and I do not think the matter is one on which the House will require me to give fuller details.
§ MR. HENRY LABOUCHERE (Northampton)With regard to all these Dispatches, did I not understand the right hon. Gentleman to say in the discussion yesterday that he would lay in the Library of the House the Italian Green-book, which contains every Dispatch which the right hon. Gentleman says he will not give to the House of Commons?
* MR. CURZONThe hon. Gentleman is incorrect in both the statements which he has made. I said I would lay the Green-book if I found that there was more than one copy at the Foreign Office. I find there is only one copy, and that is under examination by myself. [Laughter.] As to the second part of the Question, the Dispatches which I have promised to lay on the Table are those asked for by the hon. Gentleman which have already appeared in the Italian Green-book, and of which I think there are but one or two.