§ SIR HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)To ask the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if the international arrangements made at the Paris Conference in 1902 relative to the traité des blanches have been duly ratified; and, if they are now in force, what are the principal provisions.
(Answered by Earl Percy.) An international agreement, to which His Majesty's Government is a party, was signed at Paris on 18th May last. The deposit of ratifications has not vet taken place, and the agreement will not come into force until six months after their deposit.