§ SIR GEORGE WHITE (Norfolk, N.W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if his attention has been called to Article 36 of the Congo Colonial Law, voted by the Belgian Parliament, which provides that the decrees, regulations, and edicts of the Congo State shall retain full force of law under the Belgian 1575 administration; and if he can say whether this provision applies to the decree and regulations of 1891–2 and to the edicts subsequently promulgated under which the natural products of the soil have been appropriated by the administration and the concessionaire companies.
§ SIR EDWARD GREYUntil the Belgian Government have had time to formulate a scheme for carrying out the assurances respecting the better treatment of natives and freedom of trade already given, and for a more precise definition of which His Majesty's Government have asked in their Memorandum of 1st November last, which has been presented to Parliament, it would seem to be necessary that the administration should be carried on under existing regulations. The particular point referred to in the end of the Question, which is a very important one, is dealt with in the Memorandum of His Majesty's Government, to which the reply of the Belgian Government has not yet been received.