§ 2. Sir A. MARKHAMasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, adverting to the statement in his letter dated 25th August, and published in the Press on the following day, that freedom of the seas may be a very reasonable subject for discussion, definition, and agreement between nations after this war, but not by itself alone, not while there is no freedom and no security against war and German methods of war on land, will he explain whether it is intended after this War again to entertain on behalf of this country proposals touching sea warfare, similar to those embodied in the Declaration of London or in any of those Hague Conventions which have not been sanctioned by Parliament; and especially 1439 whether it is intended to renew the declarations made at The Hague in 1907 that His Majesty's Government were desirous to see the right of search limited in every practicable way, and that they were willing to abandon the principle of contraband of war altogether?
§ Lord ROBERT CECILThe passage to which the hon. Member refers meant exactly what it said, that certain matters might be reasonable subjects for discussion between nations generally after the War. The hon. Member's question is apparently intended to raise a discussion during the War. This, I think, is impossible, for obvious reasons, as far as belligerent Governments are concerned. The personal opinion of my right hon. Friend, and, if I may say so, my own, is that the whole question of international agreements, and how they can be made worth anything in future, may reasonably form the subject of discussion between nations after the War in the light of the experience gained and the reflections suggested by the way this War originated, and the methods by which our enemies have conducted it on sea and land; and that it would be very unreasonable to say the contrary. Further than that I cannot go at present.