§ MR. HAIN (Cornwall, St. Ives)To ask the Under-Secretary of State for 679 Foreign Affairs whether, in view of the injury done to Cornish fisheries by French fishing-boats engaged in crab and lobster fishing near the Seven Stones, and seeing that the Seven Stones Lightship is maintained by the Trinity Board, he will state upon what grounds the Foreign Office have refused to take steps for the protection of the Cornish fishermen.
(Answered by Lord Cranborne.) I need not say that His Majesty's Government greatly regret any injury which may have befallen the Cornish fisheries in the matter to which my hon. friend refers; but the Foreign Office has been unable to take any steps to prevent it. We are advised that the fishing off the Seven Stones is not within British territorial waters, and the right of foreign boats to fish there cannot therefore be contested.