HC Deb 01 May 1906 vol 156 cc403-4
MR. ASHLEY (Lancashire, Blackpool)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the territory claimed by the Turkish Government in the Sinai Peninsula is confined solely to Tabah and neighbourhood or extends to the whole of the Peninsula, encluding the important quarantine station of Tor.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir EDWARD GREY,) Northumberland, Berwick

The demands put forward by the Turkish Government have extended far beyond Tabah and its neighbourhood, and have rendered it necessary that there should be a joint delimitation of the whole frontier on that side, and that pending a general settlement the Turkish forces should retire from Tabah. This is what His Majesty's Government have asked from the beginning, but what the Porte has hitherto declined. The Porte is now being urged again to agree to it. I cannot say anything further as to the course of the negotiations at this moment.