§ *SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the attention of His Majesty's Government has been called to proposed proceedings of the Société Générale Africaine, in which the Congo State appears to be interested, within the portion of the Bahr-el-Ghazel which was renounced by France at the time of the Fashoda incident, and which appears to be claimed as though the Agreement of 1894 were in force with regard to the whole of the Bahr-el-Ghazel, in spite of the United Kingdom not having been placed in possession of the territories to be leased to His Majesty's Government by the Congo State, and whether any negotiations are taking place on the subject.
§ *THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Viscount CRANBORNE, Rochester)His Majesty's Government have no knowledge of the proceedings referred to by the right hon. Baronet. The question 1151 of our position in respect of the leased territories has been the subject of communications between His Majesty's Government and that of the Congo State.