§ MR. HEDDERWICKI beg to ask the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs whether the Government has ceded any territory in the North-East of Africa to the Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia; and, if so, whether the territory ceded included any portion of land under the dominion of the Khedive before our occupation of Egypt?
MR. CURZONThere has been a slight rectification of the Somali frontier as recorded in the Annex to the Treaty already laid before Parliament. Egyptian authority formerly extended to Harrar; but the whole of these possessions were abandoned with the sanction of Her Majesty's Government after the fall of Khartoum, and Harrar has since been occupied by Abyssinia. There is no evidence that the Frontier districts were ever under the practical jurisdiction of Egypt.
§ SIR C. DILKEIs not the slight rectification of territory of which the right hon. Gentleman speaks, one which extends to fifteen thousand square miles, and includes one-quarter of the Somaliland Protectorate?
MR. CURZONNo, Sir. I hesitate to answer definitely without reference to official sources of information, but my impression is that the right hon. Baronet is not right in his figures.