I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Treaty of Shimonoseki has now been officially communicated to Her Majesty's Government; whether it can be formally laid upon the Table of the House; and, whether the subsequent arrangement between China and Japan relating to the Liao Tung Peninsula and other matters can be similarly communicated; and, whether it is the intention of the Foreign Office to publish a general Blue Book dealing with British interests in the Japanese and Chinese war, which has just come to a conclusion?

No, Sir; I cannot make any promise as to when the Blue Books will be published. A despatch has just been received from Her Majesty's Chargé d' Affaires at Tokio forwarding copies of the Treaty and of an Imperial Proclamation, which announces the arrangement made with the French, German, and Russian Governments as to the Liao Tung Peninsula.