§ MR. HARMSWORTH (Caithness-shire)To ask the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will take the necessary steps for securing from the signatories to the North Sea Convention an agreement to the closing of the Pentland Firth to trawlers.
(Answered by Earl Percy.) We have no reason to believe that any of the parties to the North Sea Fisheries Convention would be willing to forego their rights of fishing in the Pentland Firth outside the limits of territorial waters without similiar concessions in return. Nor would the assent of those Powers alone be sufficient for the effectual closing of that area of the high seas.