subject of correspondence between the Belturbet Urban District Council and the Cavan Rural District Council. The well is within the jurisdiction of the latter body, who are understood to decline action at present. The reasons for this refusal are not known. Further inquiries are being made.

MR. LONSDALE: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Chairman of the Cavan Council declared that the

council would not tax the ratepayers for the sake of keeping the military in Belturbet as he hoped they would at the end of the year when they got Home Rule clear the English garrison out of the country altogether.

[No Answer was returned.]

Royal Arsenal Explosion. SIR W. EVANS GORDON (Tower Hamlets, Stepney): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether the men temporarily thrown out of employ ment in the Royal Arsenal, owing to the recent explosion, have suffered any loss of pay; and, if so, whether it is proposed to grant them any compensation.

MR. HALDANE: A certain number of men were temporarily thrown out of employment, but they will not suffer any loss of pay.

Agricultural Instruction in India.
MR. HART-DAVIES (Hackney, N.):
I beg to ask the Secretary of State for

India whether his attention has been
called by the Government of India to the
need for the development of agricultural
instruction; and whether he will favour-
ably consider any representations on this

matter from the Indian Government.

Transvaal Upper House.

M. ALDEN: I beg to ask the UnderSecretary of State for the Colonies whether in constituting the Upper House in the Transvaal, the leaders of Het Volk, the largest Party in the State, were consulted; and, if not, would he state why so few Members of that Party have been nominated to the Upper House.

THE UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE

COLONIES (Mr. CHURCHILL, Manchester, N. W.): My hon friend will recollect that on Thursday last in reply to a Question of his I fully explained the method of constituting the Upper House in the Transvaal Legislature. I cannot say how far the Governor thought it expedient to consult unofficially the Leaders of the various political Parties when he was preparing a list of suitable nominees for the Legislative Council, but the Secretary of State was satisfied that the nominations were good and that they fully and adequately represented the different sections of political opinion in the Colony. There can, of course, be no question of revision now. I may add that Lord Selborne has telegraphed "I am satisfied that Legislative Councillors will perform their task impartially and justly with a single eye to the welfare of the Transvaal and South Africa without regard to the particular interest of any one race or Party and that proof of their suitability will be found in their practical | work."

Colonial Office had received any specfic protest from either of the Parties in the

MR. ALDEN asked whether the

Transvaal.

MR.

believe that telegraphic notice of protest on behalf of the Het Volk and Nationalist Party has already been received.

CHURCHILL: Yes, Sir. I

THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. HOBHOUSE, Bristol, E): i Schemes have been sanctioned by the MR. ALDEN: Is it not extreme Secretary of State and by his predecessor probable that there will be a conflict between the two Chambers ? for the expansion of the Agricultural Departments of the several provinces, and these schemes make provision for agricultural colleges. A central college for all India has also been established. The recommendations of the Government of India in this matter will continue to receive the Secretary of State's most careful consideration.

*MR. SPEAKER: That is a matter of opinion.

asked when the names of the nominated SIR GILBERT PARKER (Gravesend) Members would be laid before the House.

+ See (4) Debates, clxix., 1032.

MR. CHURCHILL: They have been published already and are quite accessible. It will be convenient very soon to lay further Papers on the Table, and that will be the best way of bringing the names formally before the House.

MR. ARTHUR LEE (Hampshire, Fareham): Was the list of names submitted in the first place to the Government and do his Majesty's Government accept full responsibility for the nominations?

release the 15,000 Chinese coolies who are now employed by him?

MR. CHURCHILL: That is a question which should be addressed to Mr. Robinson.

MR. MITCHELL-THOMSON (Lanarkshire, N.W.): Are we to understand that these obstacles were peculiar to the case of Mr. Robinson? Who is responsible

for them?

MR. CHURCHILL: That is departing very far from the original question.

German and British Trade Treaty.
MR. BRIDGEMAN (Shropshire, Os-

MR. CHURCHILL: The names were submitted to his Majesty's Government and we accept full responsibility for all the nominations. MR. MACKARNESS (Berkshire, New-westry): 1 beg to ask the Secretary of bury): Has a protest come from the new Government in the Transvaal, and will any answer be given?

MR. CHURCHILL: There is not at present, in any official or formal sense, a new Government in the Transvaal.

State for Foreign Affairs what is the nature of the most favoured - nation arrangement between the United Kingdom and Germany; when that arrangement terminates; and what steps it is proposed to take respecting its renewal.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR White Labour on South African Mines. FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir EDWARD MR. FIENNES (Oxon, Banbury): IGREY, Northumberland, Berwick): Unbeg to ask the Under-Secretary of State der a German law, which authorises it, for the Colonies if he can state what most favoured - nation treatment is at experiments have been made in white present given to the British Empire with labour by Mr. J. B. Robinson on the the exception of Canada. I have no Randfontein group of mines; and, if reason to suppose that the arrangement any, whether these experiments have will not be continued so long as we give most favoured - nation treatment Germany.

been a success.

MR. CHURCHILL: No, Sir. I have no information on the subject.

MR. FIENNES asked whether Mr. Robinson did not say that he was going to employ white labour under Mr. Cresswell, and why that experiment had not been proceeded with.

MR. CHURCHILL: Mr. Robinson has been greatly obstructed in this experiment by the obstacles, which were raised in uninterrupted and almost interminable succession, to his efforts to obtain fresh supplies of native labour in South Africa. But I understand that those obstacles are now being gradually removed; and, as Mr. Robinson has given £5,000 towards the relief of distress on the Rand, it appears that he is in earnest.

MR. FIENNES When Mr. Robinson has acquired this native labour, will he

to

Trawling in the Moray Firth. MR. CATHCART WASON (Orkney and Shetland): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he is aware of the consequences which must follow on the opening of the Moray Firth to trawlers, and of the desire of the people to lay before him, by deputation, their views on the subject; and if he will consent to receive such a deputation.

SIR EDWARD GREY: A similar Question is being addressed to the Prime Minister, and I have nothing to add to the reply which he will give.

British Subject Hanged at Warsaw.

MAJOR ANSTRUTHER-GRAY (St. Andrews Burghs): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. whether he has received any official Report showing that a British subject,

A. J. Tingle, has been tried by courtmartial and hanged at Warsaw for robbing a tram conductor; and, if so, what action he intends to take in the matter.

of pupils in the Egyptian Agricultural School has been only fifty-nine, of whom nearly one half have been of other than Egyptian nationality, and that the annual increase is still slight, he will advise the Egyptian Government to consider the expediency of giving the instruction in the college in Arabic instead of in English, with the view of attracting students.

SIR EDWARD GREY: His Majesty's Consul-General at Warsaw reported on February 9th that one of the criminals guilty of the armed robbery of a tramway conductor, and caught in the act, was a British subject, Adolphus Tingle, the grandson of an English clerk who married. in that town. I have not so far received any official Report of this person's trial by court-martial and execution, but unless these are shown not to have taken place in accordance with the law at present in force in Russian Poland there is no matter. ground for any action on the part of His Majesty's Government.

MAJOR ANSTRUTHER-GRAY: Am I to understand he was not a British subject?

SIR EDWARD GREY: The facts will be found in Lord Cromer's Annual Reports. For the reasons given in previous Answers, I do not think it desirable to interfere with the discretion of the Egyptian Government in this

Egyptian Colleges-Professional Classes

DR. RUTHERFORD (Middlesex, Brentford): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether some years ago Egyptian professional colleges SIR EDWARD GREY: I understand held classes in the afternoon and evening

he is.

so as to enable Government employees to qualify for professional careers or superior

MAJOR ANSTRUTHER-GRAY: And Government posts; and, if so, why that

he has been hanged for robbery ?

practice was discontinued in opposition to the wishes of many would-be pupils.

I beg also to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to the fact that in the primary and secondary Government schools of Egypt no instruction is given in the sciences of botany, biology, and physiology; and whether he will advise the Egyptian Government to remedy this defect.

SIR EDWARD GREY: Both these

Questions relate to matters of administrative detail, and though it is true that British influence is and should be used to encourage and promote education, Lord Cromer's Reports show that this has received great attention, and I do not think it is desirable or possible to do it more effectively by sending special instructions piece-meal on matters of detail.

MR. J. M. ROBERTSON: Is it not the duty of the Government to see that instruction is given in these subjects?

SIR PHILIP MAGNUS (London University): Is instruction in the sciences of botany, biology, and physiology given in

SIR EDWARD GREY: It does not need reopening; as the Report shows it is constantly receiving attention and being discussed between Lord Cromer and the Government.

The Arabic Language in Egyptian
Schools.

MR. J. M. ROBERTSON: I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, seeing that in the Egyptian Government's decree of 22nd June, 1893, it was expressly provided that the Arabic language should be the that the Arabic language should be the basis or medium for the teaching of all subjects in the Egyptian schools, he will say whether this decree has been carried

SIR EDWARD GREY: I beg to refer the hon. Member to the Answer which I I have no gave him on the 26th instant. † reason to doubt that the provisions of this decree are carried out. The provisions are as stated in my Answer on February 21st.+

MR. J. M. ROBERTSON : But it was laid down that Arabic should be the basis or medium of instruction. Is that being habitually disregarded?

+ See (4) Debates, clxix., 1402.
+ See (4) Debates, clxix., 1036.

these are; and whether he will instructing lead, and sentenced to six weeks the British Agent at Cairo to advise the hard labour; whether the prisoner's emEgyptian Government to improve the ployer sent a thirteen years good position of the petitioners in both re- character; and whether, in view of the spects, seeing that the salary of the fact that this was the first offence, he director-general of the railway has lately will consider the advisability of ordering been raised from £2,000 to £2,500, and his immediate discharge. those of the traffic manager and chief engineer to £1,500.

SIR EDWARD GREY: I have no information on the subject. The matter is one of administrative detail on which it would be unusual and undesirable for His Majesty's Government to send special instructions to interfere with the Egyptian Government.

Mr. Bryce.

MR. LIDDELL (Down, W.) I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the rule of the Civil Service which required the late Marquess of Dufferin and Ava to be retired from the post of British Ambassador at Paris in 1896, when he attained the age of 70, and Sir Edmund Monson to be retired from the same post in 1904 on attaining the age of 70, will be enforced in the case of Mr. Bryce, the British Ambassador at Washington; and whether, seeing that Mr. Bryce will attain the age of 70 in May of next year, he will receive a pension for a tenure of 15 months service of the British Embassy at Washington.

SIR EDWARD GREY: My right hon. friend has asked me to answer this Question. The Prime Minister has the power to recommend to the King the retention of an Ambassador's services after the age of 70 if it is in the interest of the public service. This power was exercised three times in the case of the late Lord Pauncefote. No Ambassador is entitled to a pension unless he has served ten years abroad, and has completed 15 years from the date of his first commission.

Case of Stewart Burrows. MR. J. WARD: I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the case of a man named Stewart Burrows, an engine driver, who was charged at the Lambeth police court on 29th January with steal

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. GLADSTONE, Leeds, W.): I have made inquiry into this case, but I regret that I can find no sufficient grounds for recommending any reduction of the sentence passed on the offender. The magistrate in passing sentence took fully into consideration the prisoner's excellent character.

Case of Millie Marsh.

MR. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S. W.): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the observations of the magistrate at the Westminster police court last week, when committing for trial one Millie Marsh on a charge of perjury, to the effect that, though the prisoner had not brought herself within the Poor Prisoners' Defence Act, she ought to have legal aid; and whether he will give further consideration to the question of amending the said Act with a view to making it more elastic.

MR. GLADSTONE: Arrangements have been made for the defence of Millie Marsh. The learned magistrate, as I understand, on reconsideration of the circumstances of the case, felt able to grant a certificate under the Poor Prisoners' Defence Act.

Factory Inspectorships.

(Leicester): I beg to ask the Secretary MR. J. RAMSAY MACDONALD of State for the Home Department whether any gentlemen who have passed examinations for factory inspectors are still without appointments; whether the appointment gazetted on 11th January last was the result of success at an examination or otherwise; and whether any exception has been made regarding the salary paid to this last appointment.

It

MR. GLADSTONE: usually happens that of the candidates nominated to compete for a certain number of vacancies, one or two, in addition to the