§ EARL WINTERTON (Sussex, Horsham)To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will lay upon the Table of the House copies of the letters patent appointing plenipotentiaries for the negotiation of the Franco-Canadian Treaties of 1893 and 1907 respectively.
(Answered by Secretary Sir Edward Grey.) The plenipotentiaries for the conclusion of the Commercial Convention between France and Canada of 19th September, 1907, were Sir Francis Bertie, His Majesty's Ambassador at Paris, the Hon. W. S. Fielding, and the Hon. L. P. Brodeur. They were not appointed by letters patent, but were furnished with full powers under the Royal Sign Manual similar, mutatis mutandis, to those furnished to the late Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and to Sir Charles Tupper in 1893. It is not usual to lay instruments of this kind before Parliament, but I will put copies in the Library if desired.