MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether His Majesty's Government hold themselves bound, under the Suez Convention or otherwise, to allow a British vessel and crew to be forcibly conducted by their captors, against the will of the British owners, captain, and crew, through the Suez Canal.
§ THE PRIME MINISTER AND FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.There are two or three Questions down in the name of my hon. friend, and another Question was asked of the Under - Secretary for Foreign Affairs by my hon. and gallant friend the Member for Pembroke. These relate really to questions of a very diverse character. Some of them relate to broad questions of international law; others relate to the particular questions which 1062 arise out of the fact that a vessel of the Russian Volunteer Fleet has made certain captures of British merchantmen in the Red Sea. The considerations connected with that question have only an indirect relation to the general questions of international law governing capture at sea. The difficulties — I may say the great difficulties, I do not at all wish to minimise them—arising out of these captures deal with a separate problem, one which has given His Majesty's Government great anxiety, and is still giving them great anxiety, but of which I may say that the signs somewhat portend, do portend, a favourable issue. More than that I think it would be inexpedient to say. As to the Question of my hon. friend with regard to the position of the Suez Canal, which does not touch especially the question of the Volunteer Fleet, I think I may say that in my judgment he has mistaken the purport of the Suez Canal Convention. There was no act of war, so far as I am aware, committed in the Suez Canal, and the Convention expressly provides that a prize shall be treated as a man-of-war, and that men-of-war are to have free passage through the canal. Therefore I do not think any special difficulty arises in connection with that branch of the question, or anything which in any way gives rise to a difficult or complex controversy between the two Powers.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI think there can he no doubt whatever that we are bound to allow prizes of war to go through the Suez Canal. Indeed, when I say we are bound, I ought perhaps to remind the House and the public that the Suez Canal is under international management, and it is not for us as a single Power to say what the rules binding the Egyptian Government as the guardian of the Suez Canal ought to be. But in our view I may say quite plainly there can be no doubt that a legitimate prize may be taken through the Suez Canal without any breach of international arrangement.