§ Mr. MacNEILLasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Portuguese Government has received from the British Government a note advising it to comply, in the interests of both countries, with the terms of a recent stipulation for the construction of a large arsenal in the Port of Lisbon, with docks extensive enough to accommodate the largest ironclads of the British Navy, and for the reorganisation, as soon as the finances of Portugal permitted, of the Portuguese Royal Navy; and whether, having regard to the plans of the new arsenal presented to the Portuguese Government on the 23rd ultimo, whose cost is estimated at £1,250,000 sterling, and the proviso that it will be open to British naval constructors to tender for the construction of these ironclads and several torpedo-boats and destroyers, the note of the British Government to the Portuguese Government in reference to 1993 the naval supremacy and armaments of that country will be communicated to Parliament?
§ Mr. McKINNON WOODNo such note has been presented, and no such scheme has ever been contemplated by His Majesty's Government.
§ Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLIs he aware of the public notice on which I base that question, the public intimation of that, which is uncontradicted?