§ Viscount WOLMERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the negotiations with the Chinese Government have been carried on by the respective Governments and their diplomatic representatives at Peking or by the Powers and their agents; and what powers for negotiating with the Chinese Government have been conferred on the bankers by their respective Governments?
§ Mr. ACLANDThe negotiations have been carried on at Peking between the representatives of the six groups and the Chinese Government. No powers were conferred on the bankers by their respective Governments, but the latter were consulted as a matter of course at every stage of the negotiations.
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§ Viscount WOLMERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will ascertain by telegraph whether a Note was addressed on the 5th August by the Chinese Minister of Finance to the six-Power banks informing them of the rupture of negotiations?
§ Mr. ACLANDInquiries have already been made whether such a Note was addressed by the Chinese Government to the groups' representatives, and I am informed that it was not.
§ Viscount WOLMERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will publish all agreements made with the sanction and approval of His Majesty's Government between the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Deutsche Asiatische Bank and other foreign companies since the agreement of 2nd September, 1898, between the two banks named?
§ Mr. ACLANDHis Majesty's Government are not in a position to publish agreements between private companies.