§ SIR E. ASHMEAD-BARTLETTI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on what part of the Muscat coast it is proposed to place the French coaling depot: whether the 292 French Government have clearly renounced all territorial and political rights over the site where the depot is to be placed: and whether the Russian Government have also applied for a coaling depot on the Persian Gulf?
§ MR. BRODRICKThe site of the proposed French coaling depot has not yet been actually fixed, but the Sultan will be advised only to grant a depot at Muscat itself. The French Government have now accepted our view of the Treaty of 1862, that it precludes either Government from accepting any cession or lease of Muscat territory, and in lieu of their former concession have agreed to accept a coal depot on exactly the same terms as our own. We have received no information to the effect stated in the third paragraph of the Question.