§ 8. Mr. Arthur Hendersonasked the Prime Minister whether he will give an assurance that His Majesty's Government will not agree to any alteration of the status of the Suez Canal without consulting all the signatories to the Suez Canal Convention, 1888, and securing the approval of the Egyptian Government?
§ The Prime Minister (Mr. Chamberlain)The status of the Suez Canal cannot be altered without the consent of the parties to the Suez Canal Convention of 1888 and of Egypt. I would further remind the hon. Member that as part of the agreement signed on 16th April last, His Majesty's Government and the Italian Government reaffirmed their intention always to respect and abide by the provisions of the Convention of 1888 as it is at present in force, and that they communicated this declaration to the Egyptian Government.
§ 31. Mr. Thorneasked the Prime Minister the number of Suez Canal shares that are held by the Government and the number held by France; whether discussions as to giving any of these shares to Italy have yet been entered upon; and will he publish the text of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty, about the canal, signed in 1936?
§ Mr. ButlerThe information in my Noble Friend's possession relates only to the shareholding of His Majesty's Government who hold 353,504 shares; the answer to the second part of the question, so far as His Majesty's Government's shareholding is concerned, is in the negative; as regards the last part of the question, the hon. Member presumably has in mind Article 8 of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of Alliance which was published as a Command Paper in 1937 (Cmd. 5270).