§ Sir EDWIN CORNWALLasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in response to a questionnaire addressed by the Committee for the Economic Preservation of Birds in 1913 to His Majesty's Consuls and Vice-Consuls asking to be favoured with information as 1134W to the species of birds in the districts in their vicinity, and whether any protection of such birds is desirable or otherwise, a number of replies were posted to the Foreign Office, afterwards being transmitted to the secretaries of the Committee for the Economic Preservation of Birds with a request that they should not be made public; and, if so, in view of the discussion now taking place in Standing Committee B upon the Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Bill, and the advisability of all information in the possession of the Foreign Office being placed fully before the members of the Committee, will he remove the prohibition of publication above mentioned, and permit of the terms of such replies being printed and circulated for the information of all Members of the House?
§ Mr. ACLANDA request for information was, in the first instance, addressed to certain of His Majesty's diplomatic and Consular officers abroad by the Committee for the Economic Preservation of Birds direct, and the replies thereto were not in most instances sent through the Foreign Office. The Secretary of State could not naturally assent unreservedly to the publication of any statements emanating from Foreign Office officials as they might reflect upon the Government or upon some section of the people of a foreign country, and it was for this reason that the Committee was requested last December to submit, for the approval of the Secretary of State, proofs of any evidence supplied by His Majesty's diplomatic or consular representatives which it was proposed to make public. The Committee agreed to this course, but up to the present this has not been done.