§ MR. DALZIEL (Kirkcaldy District)I desire to ask the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary for the Colonies whether he can add anything to the information which he gave the House on Friday night with regard to the situation in West Africa; and whether he is in a position to confirm the report of a further French advance?
§ THE COLONIAL SECRETARYI have no further information to give with respect to the incidents which were narrated in the telegrams I read to the House on Friday night. Yesterday I received a telegram from Lieutenant Colonel Pilcher, who is in command at Lokoja, in which he says—"Information received, four French-European officers and one hundred men have arrived at Argungu." Argungu is to the East of the Niger and South of the Say-Barua line, and I cannot believe that, pending the negotiations which are going on, the French Government can have authorised this invasion of a territory to 1214 which our rights have been recognised by a Convention between Great Britain and France.