§ Sir JOHN RANDLESasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the terms of the article in the Anglo-Russian Treaty of Commerce, 1855, upon which His Majesty's Government rely for the justification of the action of the Russian Government in discriminating between different classes of natural-born British citizens solely on account of their religious belief?
§ Mr. ACLANDIt is not a question of justifying the action of the Russian Government, but of whether His Majesty's Government have ground under their Treaty rights for interfering with that action. The question was considered in68W 1862 and in 1881, and it would not be possible now to interpret the Treaty in a. sense contrary to the spirit of the decision then arrived at, nor do I see any reason to question the fact that this decision was well founded.