MR. GIBSON BOWLESI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign 173 Affairs, is His Majesty's Government aware that in September, 1900, a German force forcibly seized a considerable portion of the Congo Free State, and turned the Belgian forces out of their stations there under a threat of war; and that the Germans have thus taken possession of the strip of territory leased to Great Britain by King Leopold of Belgium in 1894, which territory was abandoned by Great Britain owing to the objections of the German and French Governments. Has His Majesty's Government made any representations to the German Government on the subject, or do they propose to make any. And what grounds are alleged by the German Government for seizing a territory which they objected to being occupied by Great Britain, and the lease of which Great Britain abandoned on German representations; and does this seizure deprive Great Britain of the possibility of connecting British South African possessions with countries occupied by Great Britain in North Africa.
§ * THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Lord CRANBORNE,) RochesterHis Majesty's Government have no official information as to the circumstances referred to in the question. Inquiry will, however, be made.