MR. GIBSON BOWLES (LynnRegis)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, is he aware of the Foreign Office Regulation, dated 23rd June 1898, and now in force, which declares that permission will not be given to any subject of His Majesty to accept a Foreign Order from the Sovereign of any foreign country, except in the case of the chief of a complimentary mission, or of a military or naval attaché on the termination of his appointment, and of the established rule that no British Ambassador shall accept an Order from the Sovereign to whose Court he is accredited; will he explain how it has occurred that the British Ambassador at Rome has accepted from His Majesty the King of Italy the Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Maurice; and is it proposed in future to depart from the established practice and to rescind the existing regulations; and, if so, by what new practice and regulations will they be replaced.
§ THE PRIME MINISTER AND FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR, Manchester, E.)I am aware of the Foreign Office regulations with regard to the acceptance of Foreign Orders by His Majesty's representatives abroad; but I think it will be recognised that the special circumstances of the King's recent visit to the King of Italy justified a departure from the general rule. It is not proposed to make any change in the existing practice.