MR. GIBSON BOWLES (King's Lynn)I wish to ask the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs whether he can state why the agreement with France, relative to African territory, signed on March 21st, which professes to be an addition to the Convention between the two countries of June 14th, 1898, and which appears to be in itself of the character of a Convention, is entitled a Declaration; whether a Declaration is of the same binding force as a Convention; and whether this document has been styled a Declaration instead of a Convention in order to avoid the necessity for submitting it for confirmation to the French Chambers?
§ MR. BRODRICKI am hardly prepared to answer at short notice the dissertation of my honourable Friend on the principle which governs this agreement, but I can assure him that the present procedure was adopted because it was considered the most convenient for all the parties concerned.
§ MR. BUCHANAN (Aberdeenshire, E.)Will vote 10, which raises the Question of the fortification of Wei-Hai-Wei, be taken on the first Friday after the holidays?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURYYes, that will be the first vote taken.