§ 30. Mr. HANNONasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can make any statement on the projected construction by the Government of Abyssinia of a dam across the outlet of 1757 Lake Tsana; if he is aware that an American firm has been invited by the Abyssinian Government to investigate the engineering problem involved; and that the arrangement between the Government of Abyssinia and this American firm is a violation of the Covenant of 1903 between the Emperor Menelik and Great Britain that no work across the Blue Nile, Lake Tsana, or the Sorbot, would be constructed except in agreement with the Governments of Great Britain and the Sudan?
Mr. A. HENDERSONAs I informed the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, East (Mr. Mander) on the 20th of March, it has been arranged, after negotiations with the Abyssinian Government in which the Irrigation Adviser of the Sudan Government took part, that a preliminary technical study of the site of the reservoir should be undertaken and a project for its construction prepared by the White Corporation of the United States of America. As these arrangements have been made with the full concurrence of His Majesty's Government and of the Sudan Government, there is no question of violating the Agreement of the 15th of May, 1902, which, I presume, the hon. Member has in mind.
§ Mr. HANNONWhy should the White Corporation of New York be invited to undertake this work in preference to a British firm, and will the hon. Gentleman use his influence to see that a British firm is given charge of the investigations?