§ MR. G. DRAGE (Derby)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for 182 Foreign Affairs whether any Report has been received at the Foreign Office with regard to the recent development of the iron trade in the northern portion of the Kingdom of Sweden and Norway; whether his attention has been called to the railway communication about to be established between the Russian port of Tornea on the Baltic and the iron district of Luossavaara in Norway, terminating at the ice-free harbour of Port Victoria; and whether any Report has been received by the Foreign Office as to the probable diversion of British trade from the Baltic to the Atlantic seaboard?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.Reports have been received from Her Majesty's Minister, and from Her Majesty's Consul at Stockholm, drawing attention to the development of the iron trade in the north of Sweden and Norway, and to the proposed construction of the railway in question, which has now been sanctioned by the Rigsdag. One of these reports was published in the Board of Trade Journal for April, and the two others will probably appear in the next issue of the Journal. Special attention has not been called to any probable diversion of British trade.