HC Deb 03 December 1906 vol 166 cc556-7
MR. REES (Montgomery Boroughs)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whether, in view of the fact that the finances of Macedonia have been administered, under agreement with the Powers, through the Imperial Ottoman Bank since March 1905, he will request the British financial adviser on the Reform Commission in Macedonia to endeavour to obtain financial statements showing the revenue and expenditure under the different headings for the Macedonian provinces since March 1905, and any further information which it may be possible to obtain to illustrate the financial position in Macedonia during periods convenient for comparison.

(Answered by Secretary Sir Edward Grey.) The British Delegate on the Financial Commission for the three Roumelian vilayets will be requested to furnish whatever information on the subject is available.

MR. LYNCH (Yorkshire, W.R., Ripon)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether it is proposed that the sums hitherto derived under Article XII. of the agreement between the Porte and the Imperial Ottoman Bank, or from other sources, and employed to defray the deficit in the Macedonian Budget, shall continue to be so employed, or, it not, to what extent; and whether the additional Customs duties, together with the further amount of £250,000 a year to be provided by the Council of the public debt, will be supplemental to the above sums or in substitution for them.

(Answered by Secretary Sir Edward Grey.) As I have already stated, the Forte Has been unable to meet its obligations under the Article referred to out of existing revenues, and the deficits have been made good mostly out of loans. When the resources mentioned in the last paragraph of the Question become available, the Porte will clearly be relieved of the necessity of raising temporary loans for the current Macedonian expenditure.