It would have been most inconvenient—I venture to say most improper—that in the very Crisis of the Negotiations, of the difficult and anxious negotiations which had not been brought to a successful termination—we should throw on the Table of the House an unconcluded story of the labours of the Foreign Office in this anxious affair.

Further, bearing in mind that barely a year and a half having elapsed since the important Resolution of the 14th December, 1906, known in Belgium as the ordre du jour patriotique, which practically decided in principle that the question of annexation was to be taken up, it is something that we are now watching the Crisis of the Negotiations, and that the points of difference have been reduced to a shape which everybody can grasp, and are now greatly reduced in number and extent.

Mr. Sorensen asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if Her Majesty's Government will collaborate with the French Government during the present Crisis in Negotiations with the Government of the United States of America in respect of an equitable allocation of oil supplies to both countries from the United States of America and of other economic and financial easement.