§ *SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can inform the House of the conditions upon which the British factory at Cape Juby was sold to the Government of the Sultan of Morocco; and whether, in view of the stipulation inserted with the intention of preventing the territory from being alienated by the Moorish Government, he can state what view is taken by the Spanish Government, having rights in the neighbourhood, as to the private French armed expedition supported by private ships now operating in the neighbourhood; and whether inquiries will be made as to whether the Foreign Enlistment Act is being violated by enlistment in the United Kingdom of persons for that expedition.
§ LORD CRANBORNEThe Agreement signed on March 13th, 1895, between the British and Moorish Governments respecting the purchase by Morocco of the property of the North-West Africa Company at Cape Juby is published in the State Papers, Vol. 87, p. 972, and in Hertslet's Map of Africa by Treaty. The inquiries made by His Majesty's Government lead to the belief that the reports as to the so-called French expedition have little foundation in fact—and the Spanish Government are fully aware that they have been greatly exaggerated. I am not quite sure which provisions of the Foreign Enlistment Act the right hon. Baronet has in view, but upon the facts so far as we are aware of them I am inclined to think that the Act does not apply.