§ MR. HOGANI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies what is the precise significance of the passage in his dispatch to the Australian Governors, dated 22nd March, 1897, and embodied in the recently published official correspon- 702 dence relating to the British New Guinea Syndicate, in which he expresses the opinion that the Australian Governments would be prepared to relieve the Imperial Government of responsibility in regard to the Pacific Islands; whether the Australian Governments have responded favourably or otherwise to this overture; and whether his subsequent suggestion in the same dispatch, that the Solomon Islands be associated with British New Guinea in a common administration, is likely to be carried into effect?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. J. CHAMBERLAIN,) Birmingham, W.The question of the future adminstration of British New Guinea and of the Solomon Islands is still under consideration, and I am not prepared to express an opinion as to the probable result.