§ Lieut.-Commander FLETCHERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in view of the Montreux Conference and the approaching Locarno conversations being prejudiced by the refusal of Italy to attend owing to our guarantee of mutual assistance given to certain Mediterranean countries, he will state to which countries the guarantee was given; to which it now applies; if these latter countries still request its continuance; to what military, aerial or naval assistance the guarantee commits us; and if the purposes served by the guarantee outweigh the disadvantages entailed by the Italian non-co-operation referred to?
§ Viscount CRANBORNEI cannot accept the assumption on which the first part of the hon. and gallant Member's question is based. The only assurances given by His Majesty's Government to Mediterranean countries and now in force are those which result from my statement in this House on 18th June and my speech at Geneva on 1st July; and if the hon. and gallant Member will be good enough to refer to these as well as to the answers to questions made since on the same subject, he will see what the precise nature and scope of these assurances is, and that they are in no sense mutual.
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§ Lieut.-Commander FLETCHERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to what extent the intimation from the French Government that they no longer consider themselves bound by the Franco-British agreement for mutual assistance in the Mediterranean, entered into at the time of the imposition of sanctions against Italy, affects in turn the guarantees for mutual assistance which we have given to certain Mediterranean countries?
§ Viscount CRANBORNEI assume that the hon. and gallant Member is referring to the assurances which formed the subject of the statements made in this House and at Geneva on 18th June and 1st July respectively. These assurances are not mutual but unilateral. They are in no way affected by the views of the French Government quoted by the bon. and gallant Member.