MR. GIBSON BOWLESI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether His Majesty's Government have received any information as to the purchase or proposed purchase by the United States Government or United States capitalists of the rights of the Panama Canal Company, or of the Danish possessions in the West Indies; and, if so, when and in what form was that information received. Has any communication passed between His Majesty's Government and the Government of the United States with reference to either of these subjects; and, if so, what is the effect of such communications, and will a copy of the correspondence be laid before this House.
§ LORD CRANBORNEDespatches dating from January, 1901, have been received from His Majesty's Ambassador at Washington, and His Majesty's Minister at Bogota, relative to the proposed purchase by the United States Government of the rights of the Panama Canal Company. Information dating from January, 1902, has also been received from His Majesty's Representatives at Washington and Copenhagen to the effect that a Treaty has been concluded for the sale to the United States Government of the Danish Antilles; that the Treaty has been ratified by the Senate of the United States, and is at present under the consideration of the Danish Rigsdag. No communication has passed between His Majesty's Government and the Government of the United States with regard to either subject.