§ THE EARL OF EGLINTON,referring to the statement made the other night by the noble Earl the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs with regard to the various clauses in the treaty with Persia, said he understood that we were about to give up by that treaty the right of protecting Persian subjects, except those employed on our mission, provided other nations agreed to adopt a similar course; but the noble Earl did not inform their Lordships whether that right of protection would be extended to the wives and families of those employés. Now, as the immediate cause of the late war with Persia was the incarceration of the wife of one of those employés, it seemed to be very necessary that their Lordships should know whether the protection was to extend to the wives and families of our employés as well as to those employés themselves. While he was on his legs he would take the opportunity of calling the noble Earl's attention to the fact that we appeared now to have fallen into difficulties with Japan; for he had seen in one of the evening papers of yesterday a statement, copied from one of the Dutch journals, to the effect that there had been a conflict between two British ships and the Japanese. We had lately been trying our hands with all the weak States of the world—with Naples, China, and Persia, and he should not be at all 2430 surprised to hear that we were going to try our hands with Japan. If so, he begged to suggest that we should try to pick a quarrel with Timbuctoo.
§ THE EARL OF CLARENDON,in answer to the question of the noble Earl, said, I have to state that it is true that we have offered to renounce the right of protecting the subjects of Persia, except those employed on the mission, provided other Governments will do the same. There has been no special provision made with respect to the wives and families of such employés; it is, however, understood that they will be placed exactly on the same footing as they have always been, and therefore that protection extends to their wives and families. The cause of that which the noble Earl has called the war with Persia was not the incarceration of a wife of one of the employés on the British mission; and I think that the noble Earl must be aware that, in truth, that was not the cause of the war. With respect to the paragraph which the noble Earl has read in one of the newspapers, as to a conflict between some British ships and the Japanese, accompanied by a humorous invitation to a war with Timbuctoo, I can only say that Her Majesty's Government have not received any information with regard to it.