MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Kings Lynn)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether any notification has been addressed to France by Her Majesty's Government of a British Protectorate in the basin of the Niger, expressly stated to extend over the countries of Borgu and Boussa lying on the western side of the Niger, and whether any notification of such a Protectorate has been addressed to France later, or other than that which is embodied in the declaration published in the London Gazette of 18th October, 1887, proclaiming a British Protectorate over all territories in the basin of the Niger and its affluents which are, or may be for the time being, subject to the government of the Royal Niger Company, if so, what was the date of such notification; whether the French Government have applied to any such notification, if any, of a British Protectorate alleging any claims of their own to any territories included therein; and whether any information can now be given to the House to show the limits of the territories in the Niger basin which are subject to the government of the Royal Niger Company?
MR. CURZONA formal notification to the effect mentioned in paragraph 486 I was made to the French Government by Lord Dufferin on January 1st, 1895, supplementing an earlier notification of the Treaty of the Niger Company, which had previously been made by the British representative at the first meeting of the Niger Commission which met in Paris in May, 1892. The second and third questions relate to matters now under discussion at Paris. May I ask hon. Members on both sides of the House kindly to spare me the necessity of declining to answer questions about the subject-matter of these negotiations while they are still proceeding?