§ MR. ATHERLEY-JONES (Durham, N.W.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government are aware that, by a manifesto of the Tsar of Russia of 15th February 1899, the constitutional autonomy of Finland has been abridged; whether it be the intention of the Russian Government, on its own motion and in defeasance of the constitutional rights of the Finnish Diet, to increase the army recruited in Finland from 5,600 to 35,000 soldiers on the active list; whether he has information to show that this action of the Russian Government has produced resentment in Finland, which is shared by the people of Holland and the Scandinavian peninsula; and whether, in view of the proposals of the Tsar in favour of the reduction of European armaments, Her Majesty's Government propose to make any representations thereon to the Russian Government?
§ MR. BRODRICKI fear I can add nothing to what I stated yesterday with 827 regard to the general purport of the Emperor of Russia's manifesto respecting Finland, and the questions to which it refers are not such as would give Her Majesty's Government any right to make representations.