MR. GIBSON BOWLESI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, have His Majesty's Government considered the conditions that should be attached to granting permission, during war, to belligerent men-of-war for coaling in coaling stations of His Majesty's dominions within or beyond the seas; and have they especially considered the necessity for requiring, as a condition precedent to granting such permission, a satisfactory engagement that any belligerent man-of-war allowed to be supplied with sufficient coal to carry her to the 1220 nearest port of her own nation will in fact proceed to that port direct, and will not use the coal supplied for proceeding elsewhere, in order to carry on operations of war against the other belligerent.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThis question has engaged the attention of the Government, and directions have been given for carrying out the condition to which my hon. friend refers in the last lines of his Question.