HC Deb 11 February 1908 vol 183 cc1533-4
SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs when there will be laid before Parliament additional Papers relating to the proceedings at the Hague Conference; and whether he is in a position to explain the reasons which made His Majesty's Government, after proposing the creation of an International Prize Court of Appeal, unable to join in signing the Convention thus obtained at the time of its signature by many other Powers.

SIR EDWARD GREY

The Papers are in course of preparation, and will be issued as soon as possible, but they are very voluminous and have not yet been published at The Hague. The British Plenipotentiaries signed none of the instruments drawn up by the Conference before they left The Hague, and the same course of procedure was adopted on the occasion of the First Peace Conference. There was no reason for making the Prize Court Convention an exception to this course.