MR. HERBERT ROBERTSI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Government have received any official information as to the alleged elements of disaffection in the Yang-tsze provinces; whether the British authorities have reduced their forces in those regions by the withdrawal of the Sikhs and the Artillery; and whether in view of a possible rising in these provinces, the Government have taken the necessary steps for the protection of the British interests involved.
§ *VISCOUNT CRANBORNEThe answer to the first question is in the negative. In answer to the second and third questions I have to say that some of the British troops at Tientsin, Wei-hai-wei, and Hong Kong are being withdrawn, but no reduction in the Shanghai garrison is in contemplation at present.