§ MR. C. J. MONK (Gloucester)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can confirm the statement contained in the lately-issued French Yellow Book, and purporting to have been made by the French Ambassador to M. Hanotaux on the 22nd of December last, to the effect that Great Britain had given her adhesion to the following preliminary agreement of the Great Powers, namely, the maintenance of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, no Condominium, and no action on any point?
MR. CURZONIn reply to my hon. Friend I beg to refer him to the collection of Papers Turkey No. 2, 1897, recently laid before Parliament. He will find in Nos. 27, 28, and 29, that these points were mentioned in the instructions sent by the French Government to their Ambassador at Constantinople, and that Lord Salisbury stated that the instructions appeared to be in harmony with the proposals of Her Majesty's Government.