§ LORD EGERTONasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he had now any objection to notify to foreign countries that the Port of Manchester would be open on January 1st 1894. The Manchester Ship Canal was now in a state of practical completion, and it was proposed to open it on 1st January next. In the absence of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs he would ask the Lord President of the Council the question of which he had given notice. The Board of Trade had sanctioned the opening of the Port of Manchester, and the Chairman of Quarter Sessions had also certified it as complete. But the question was, how was this fact to be notified to foreign countries except through the Foreign Office. Was it desirable that the opening of the Port of Manchester should be known only to foreign countries through foreign Consuls? He trusted the noble Earl opposite would be able to give him some assurance that the Foreign Office would notify to foreign countries the opening of this port. He knew it had been said that it was not the practice of the Foreign Office to advertise private undertakings, and that there was great competition between the existing railways and ports. But he was not asking the Foreign Office in, any way to interfere or advertise a private industrial undertaking. 805 This was not altogether a private undertaking, because a great portion of the funds had been provided out of the funds of the Corporation of Manchester. Therefore, this Ship Canal was not altogether on the level of an ordinary industrial concern like the Frith of Forth Bridge.
THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (The Earl of KIMBERLEY)My noble Friend is very sorry he has been obliged to leave the House. He desires me to say he regrets he cannot alter the decision which has already been communicated to the noble Lord. He had hoped that the force of the reasons by which the actions of the Foreign Office must be guided in such a case would have been so readily acknowledged, even by those most interested, as to acquit him of any disposition to prejudice the Ship Canal or in any way to underrate its importance. He is informed that no precedent can be found for such a course as that which the noble Lord asks him to take, and were he to accede to his request, and to place upon Her Majesty's Representatives abroad the duty of making this announcement, his action would inevitably give rise not only to complaints from other companies, to which no similar help had been extended, but also to demands in the future, which could not consistently be refused. The principles of Free Trade and the dictates of fair play, no less than considerations of policy, require that a step of this kind, if taken in the interest of one undertaking, must be taken in that of all which apply for it. It is impossible to make an exception to this rule without taking an entirely new departure, but my noble Friend assures the noble Lord that, in stating his inability to do so, he has no wish even to appear to withhold his tribute of admiration to the successful industry and enterprise which have achieved so great a work as the Manchester Ship Canal.