§ COLONEL DENNY (Kilmarnock Burghs)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the negotiations in relation to the compensation to British subjects who lost relatives in the Kow Shing are approaching a satisfactory conclusion?
MR. CURZONI stated in reply to a previous Question that delay had been 392 caused by the illness of the late Chinese Minister, who is recently dead. As soon as the new Minister arrived Lord Salisbury called his attention to the claim for the loss of the Kow Shing, and a note was received from him in June last stating that all the papers would be sent to Pekin for the information of the Chinese Government, and that he would acquaint Lord Salisbury with the nature of the instructions which he might receive and with the views of the Chinese Government on the suggestion that the matter should be referred.