§ MR. HICKS BEACHI beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Government is giving any pledge to the French Government in connection with the Ethiopian Railway in Abyssinia which will stop a railway being built in British Somaliland from Berbera to Harrar via Hargeisa.
§ MR. RUNCIMANThe agreement has been provisionally initialled, but will not be signed until the Emperor Menelik has had an opportunity of expressing his views. In the meantime, no statement can be made on the subject.