§ MR. CROMBIE (Kincardineshire)To ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that the Dutch Government some four years ago brought to the notice of His Majesty's Government certain resolutions passed by the Institute of International Law, and confirmed by the International Law Association, of which the Lord Chief 566 Justice is president, and proposed to call a conference of European Powers to reconsider the existing rules applicable to the limits of territorial waters for fishing purposes, and, seeing it was owing to the refusal of His Majesty's Government to take part in it that the conference fell through, whether he will now reconsider the advisability of promoting this conference.
(Answered by Lord Cranborne.) No such proposals were made at the time mentioned. But in 1895 the Dutch Government consulted Great Britain and other maritime Powers on the expediency of calling together a conference for the purpose of determining in a uniform manner for all nations the distance of the limit of territorial waters from the shore. The limit was to be discussed only with reference to fisheries. His Majesty's Government, and, we believe, other Governments concerned, were of opinion that no advantage would be gained by opening such a discussion, and, as far as I am aware, nothing has since occurred to modify that opinion.