§ LORD HERSCHELLI beg to ask the noble Marquess the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government are taking measures to protect the interests of English companies who were working in Manica at the time the British South Africa Company's agents entered Manica, and who held contracts from the Mozambique 582 Company granted before the Chartered Company came into existence, and whether Her Majesty's Government will undertake that in any settlement of the question which may be arrived at the rights and privileges acquired by those companies under such contracts shall be preserved to them?
§ THE PRIME MINISTER AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (The Marquess of SALISBURY)I think that there is in this matter a slight confusion, which, I am sure, is not shared by the noble and learned Lord opposite, between private right and sovereignty. All that Her Majesty's Government have to do with is sovereignty—the questions between themselves and other Powers. Private rights endure whatever the sovereignty may be. If over a particular territory England should be decided to have influence, or Portugal should be decided to have influence, the rights, duly and properly acquired, in other persons will be held just as sacred in the one case as in the other. The answer I should prefer to give to the noble and learned Lord is, that nothing Her Majesty's Government will do will interfere with the private rights duly acquired by either individuals or companies.