§ * MR. EMMOTTI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the attention of His Majesty's Government has been called to a letter dated 15th, April. 1904, addressed by M. Sève, Consul-General for Belgium at Liverpool, in which the report of His Majesty's Consul in the Congo Independent State, dated 11th December, 1903, given in the White-book, Africa, No. 1, 1904, is characterised as a libel; and, if so, will he say whether such language employed by a representative of a friendly Government is a breach of international courtesy; and, if so, what slops His Majesty's Government are taking to mark their sense of the impropriety of such action on the part of a foreign official.
§ EARL PERCYThe attention of His Majesty's Government had not previously been called to the letter referred to, but steps will be taken to bring the matter to the notice of the Belgian Government.