§ MR. DILLONI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Government have decided to send a Special Mission to King Menelik; and, if so, what are the objects of this mission?
*MR. CURZONThe mission is sent to assure King Menelik of our friendly intentions, to endeavour to promote amicable political and commercial relations, and to settle certain questions which have arisen between the British authorities in the Somali Coast Protectorate and the Abyssinian Governor of Harrar.
§ MR. J. M. MACLEAN (Cardiff)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if Her Majesty's Government will attach a representative of British commercial interests to the political and military mission they are sending to the court of King Menelik?
*MR. CURZONIt will not be possible on this occasion to send any special representative of British commercial interests with the mission. But Mr. Rodd will receive instructions to pay particular attention to those interests in his communications with the Abyssinian Court.