THE EARL OF GALLOWAYsaid, he wished to ask the noble Earl the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs a Question of which he had given him private Notice. The Question was as to the correctness of a Reuter's telegram, dated Cairo, April 26, 8 P.M., which he (the Earl of Galloway) had seen in The Observer of yesterday, and in that morning's papers, to the effect that the reply of the British Government had been received to the proposal to send an expedition for the relief of Berber, and stating that such an expedition would not be possible at the present time, and could not, in fact, start for four months hence; that this decision had been communicated to Hussein Pasha Kalifa, Governor of Berber; and, at the same time, he had been told that he might withdraw from the town if he was in a position to do so. If that telegram were correct, would the noble Earl have any 725 objection to state to the House what ground there was for saying that such an expedition was deemed by the Government to be impossible?
§ EARL GRANVILLE, in reply, said, it would be very inconvenient to answer the Question until the Government had received official intimation of the receipt of the reply. He hoped, therefore, that the noble Earl would postpone the Question.