§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYI wish to ask, as the noble Marquess at the head of the War Department is going to make a statement in the other House on the policy of the Government—I may be wrong, but that is the impression abroad—whether, if that is so, the noble Earl opposite (Earl Granville) has anything to communicate to this House with respect to the policy to be pursued in the Soudan, or in regard to the Afghan Frontier?
§ EARL GRANVILLEI am not aware of what is going on in the other House; but certainly it would not be my intention to make any statement to your Lordships with regard to the Soudan. The noble Earl on the Cross Benches. (the Earl of Wemyss) has given Notice of a Motion on that subject, and he has postponed it from to-day. Therefore, I am not now in a position, without preparation, to make any statement to your Lordships. But it may be satisfactory, with regard to another question, that I should make a short statement—it does not go far, but as far as it does go it is satisfactory—with regard to the Afghan boundary. A reference having been agreed to by this country and Russia to the judgment of the Sovereign of a friendly State as to a point of honour that has arisen, and as we do not anticipate any difficulty in the details of that agreement, Her Majesty's Government thought it right that my noble Friend the Secretary of State for India (the Earl of Kimberley) and myself should meet M. 109 de Staal and M. Lessar, and go over I with them the question of the delimitation of the frontier. I can only state now that we have arrived substantially at an agreement, which is perfectly satisfactory to Her Majesty's Government, to the Earl of Dufferin, and to the Council of India. That agreement has been transmitted to the Government of Russia by the Russian Representatives in this country.