§ MR. YERBURGH (Chester)To ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the representative of the French Government at Shanghai, in his capacity of member of the Consular Body of the International Settlement has refused to send his assessor to the Mixed Court of that Settlement, although this procedure is 242 adopted by all his colleagues; whether, also, the French Government maintains that in the Mixed Court of the French Settlement, assessors of nationality other than French are not entitled to sit in cases against Chinese subjects resident in that Settlement in which their nation's interests are involved; and, if so, whether His Majesty's Government will take-immediate steps to preserve our Treaty rights in China, and the interests of British and Chinese subjects at Shanghai.
(Answer) It is the case that the-French Consul General at Shanghai has expressed himself unable to send an assessor to the Mixed Court of the International Settlement, the French Government not having concurred in the Rules of the Mixed Court of the International Settlement. A Report is expected shortly from His Majesty's Minister at Peking on the whole question. Pending its receipt, I am unable to make a full statement. His Majesty's Government are fully alive to the importance of the question. —(Foreign Office.)