§ Sir WILLIAM BYLESasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is yet able to relieve public anxiety by a disclosure of the present state of the negotiations for an Anglo-American Treaty of Arbitration; whether he can confirm the announcement reported to have been made by President Taft that France has signified her desire to enter the Arbitration Treaty; and whether he concurs in the President's prediction that the treaties with Great Britain and France would be signed within ten days, and that within a few months the United States will be linked by arbitration treaties with four other nations?
Mr. McKINNON WOODThere need be no public anxiety as to the negotiations for an Anglo-American Arbitration Treaty. The discussion of points, rather of form than of substance, has taken some time, but I believe the two Governments are now practically agreed as to the terms. I can- 1466 not say anything as to negotiations between the United States and other Powers, of which I am not informed.