§ MR. DRAGEI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to two statements reported to have been made by Members of the Swedish Parliament in the recent Debate on the Ofoten Railway—namely, that the district through which the railway will pass in Norway is inhabited by a Finnish population likely to appeal to Russia for protection, and that the terminus of the railway at Port Victoria is likely to share the fate of Port Arthur; and whether he will obtain from Her Majesty's Legation at Stockholm an authoritative account of the Debate, with special reference to these two points, and lay it upon the Table?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURYI am afraid that I cannot comply with my honourable Friend's request. 183 It would be a most unusual and an undesirable proceeding to lay before Parliament extracts from a Debate in a foreign Legislature on the political view which certain Members appear to take of a commercial undertaking in their own country.