§ Resolution reported, "That it is expedient to authorise the payment, out of moneys provided by Parliament, of any sums payable by way of indemnity pursuant to any Act of the present session for approving and carrying into effect a Convention between His Majesty and the President of the French Republic, and any Expenses to be incurred in carrying the said Convention into effect."
MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)expressed doubt as to the wisdom of the Government in pressing this matter at the present time. The French had refused to ratify the Convention hitherto, and, therefore. surely it would be better to keep our card up our sleeve as long as the French did the same. If this Resolution, and the Bill founded upon it, were passed now the Government would in effect be bound to agree to the Convention, and it was notorious that the French Government did not intend to agree to the Convention as it stood. They intended to put pressure upon His Majesty's Government to agree to changes in the Convention such as would satisfy their desires. In those circumstances he submitted to the Prime Minister that it would be prudent to leave the passage of the Bill 490 to a future period, when they could see what terms the French proposed.
§ THE PRIME MINISTER AND FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.I give my hon. friend every credit for the patriotic motive which induced him to make the suggestion which he has laid before the House; but I venture to suggest to him and to the House that the course which he is pressing upon us is not one which is really consistent with—I will not say the honour and dignity of this country, but, at all events, with high expediency. It is true that the French have not passed the Convention, and it is perfectly true that there is no absolute security that in November they will pass it—it is not certain, because, after all, nothing is certain. But I think my hon. friend entirely misreads the signs of the times if he thinks that the French Government have the smallest desire to insist upon, or even to suggest, any modification in the Convention, as it has already been passed by the two Powers. I do not know what his authority is for the statement, but nothing confirmatory of it has reached our ears. We have not received it from an official source, or from any unofficial source worthy of serious attention. Let it be noticed that the French Chamber did not pass the Convention because they had to bring their proceedings to a conclusion on a certain date, and it was not possible to find time to discuss the Convention before that date arrived. That is not the case with us. It is true that we are all desirous of bringing the necessary business of the session to a conclusion, but we are not brought up against a dead wall at this stage, the French were. If we put 491 it off, therefore, especially on the ground suggested by my hon. friend, and after the speech he has made, can the French form any other judgment but that we regard their proceedings with suspicion, that we think they mean to drive a hard bargain with us in November and that we do not treat them as a friendly nation, which has entered into a friendly agreement, but that we regard ourselves as two bargainers, each trying to squeeze the last atom out of the other? That is not the spirit in which we approached the matter; it is not the spirit in which the French Government approached the matter. And I would earnestly suggest to my hon. friend that he would do well to withdraw his protest, and permit us to do that which I am convinced cannot hurt any substantial British interest at all, to show to France and the world that we have approached this question in a generous, and not a huckstering spirit, and that our desire is to do everything that lies in our power to bring to a final and lasting termination the negotiations which now, at all events, although their course has been long, have ended in a manner beneficial and honourable to both countries.
§ MR. BLAKE (Longford, S.)supported the course proposed by the right hon. Gentleman as the only one worthy of the dignity of the country.
§ Resolution agreed to.