MR. GIBSON BOWLESI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, can he now state the nature and object of the Secret Agreement made by His Majesty's Government with Germany in 1899 to which Count von Bülow referred in his speech in the Reichstag of 12th December, 1900, as having no reference to the conflict between England and the South African Republics; at what time will the actual terms of the Agreement be laid before this House; can he state to what subject and to what countries does the Agreement in question refer; and can he give the House an assurance that it does not refer to the projected German railway proposed to be built through Asia Minor, by Bagdad to Bussorah and Koweit at the head of the Persian Gulf.
§ * LORD CRANBORNEThe Agreement is, as the question suggests, a secret one, and I therefore cannot give the information asked for.