§ MR. J. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what is the cause of the delay in obtaining an award in the Delagoa Bay Railway arbitration; will he refer to the previous answers to this Question on the subject to ascertain the replies given in former years by the assessors as a reason for the delay; whether this is the ninth year that the jurists have been in deliberation; and whether the remuneration of the jurists is fixed at £5,000 a year?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. G. N. CURZON,) Lancashire, S.W., SouthportMy previous answers to similar Questions have been to the effect that the long delays have been due in about equal parts to the successive applications of both parties concerned, but that, as the experts who had been sent out to conduct certain inquiries on the spot had returned from South Africa, there was good reason to believe that the award would not be much longer delayed. The latest information is that these experts have brought their labours to a close, and that their Report has been filed, and will be printed and distributed among the parties to the suit in a month or six weeks' time. The final award may be expected early next autumn. The arbitrators commenced their labours in 1891, but no annual sum was named for their remuneration.