§ MR. FIELDTo ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he is aware that the International Judicial Congress, which sat last year in Egypt on the question of gambling in futures and options in the bourses of that country, has described the practice by a majority of the seventeen countries represented as a cause of evil to that country; and whether, in view of this finding, the Government will endeavour to arrange an International Congress with the object of preventing combinations to fictitiously raise the prices of raw material, foodstuffs, minerals, and shares, for the benefit of a number of operators, as opposed to the interests of manufacturers, consumers, and bona fide speculators.
(Answered by Mr. A. J. Balfour.) No opinion has been expressed on this subject by either the Plenary Commission or Sub-Commission on Judicial Reforms in Egypt, but it is still under consideration. A circular has recently been addressed to the Powers inviting them to instruct their representatives at Cairo to continue to study the question.