§ MR. ALDENI beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware of the decrees published in the Bulletin Officiel of the Congo Free State by which four new companies were created, the shareholders and promoters being foreigners; and whether, in view of the interests possessed by this and other countries in the Congo Free State, he proposes to take any and, if any, what action in connection with these concessions of territory.
§ SIR EDWARD GREYThe question whether concessions of the kind referred to are consistent with the free trade provisions of treaty obligations is no doubt an important one, but it is not proposed to make these particular concessions the subject of a special representation at this moment.