§ MR. CHARLES M'ARTHUR (Liverpool, Exchange)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can give any information as 269 to the progress of the negotiations with the French Government for the settlement of the claims of the British merchants in the French Congo, and with respect to the interpretation of the free-trade clauses of the Berlin Act.
§ THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Earl PERCY,) Kensington, S.I can make no statement at the present stage of the negotiations.