§ MR. DRAGEI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether 93 per cent. of the imports into Bunder Abbas comes from British territory; whether the same proportion of the tonnage entering that port belongs to British subjects; and whether any information, has reached the Foreign Office of the acquisition by the Russian Government from the Persian Government of any concession in Bunder Abbas for a coaling station, a railway terminus, or any other purpose?
§ MR. BRODRICKThe latest statistics available show that the imports into Bunder Abbas in 1897 from the United Kingdom and India, amounted to 91 per cent. of the whole. All the steamers which traded with Bunder Abbas in 1897 were under the British flag, and nearly half the Failing tonnage. The answer to the second paragraph is in the negative.