HC Deb 05 May 1898 vol 57 cc423-4
MR. PROVAND

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will inform the House the date of the spontaneous communica- tion sent by our Government to the German Government stating that it has no intention of laying down railway communications from Wei-hai-Wei into the interior, or of calling in question German political or commercial interests in the province of Shan-tung; whether any reply has been received from the German Government to that communication; and when he will lay the Papers before Parliament?

THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY

Her Majesty's Ambassador at Berlin was authorised as early as the 26th to make, under certain contingencies, communications to the German Government on the subject of Wei-hai-Wei. He was instructed to do so on the 2nd. It is not proposed to lay any more Papers on the Table.