§ Lieut. - Commander KENWORTHYasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has any further information to give the House on the reported grant of a concession by the 638W Royal Abyssinian Government to an American firm of engineers to construct a barrage on the Blue Nile near Lake Tsana; and what is the present position of the negotiations with the Abyssinian Government for the barraging of the Blue Nile by British or Anglo-Egyptian efforts?
§ Sir A. CHAMBERLAINNo, Sir. I have nothing to add to the information which I gave in reply to questions on this subject on Tuesday last, except that I should perhaps have mentioned that, by an exchange of notes between Sir John Harrington and Monsieur Alfred Ilg in 1902, the Emperor Menelik undertook that, other things being equal, preference would be given to the proposals of His Britannic Majesty's Government and the Government of the Sudan; and affirmed that he had no intention of granting a concession in respect of the Blue Nile and Lake Tsana to anyone other than His Britannic Majesty's Government, the Goverment of the Sudan or one of their subjects. As regards the second part of the question, the present position is that on the 22nd September the Regent of Abyssinia addressed to His Majesty's representative at Addis Ababa a reply to the proposal which His Majesty's Government had made to him last May. I have recently instructed Mr. Bentinck by telegram to address at note to Ras Taffari which will carry these negotiations a step further.