I am awaiting a reply from the French Government to the proposal for arbitration which has been made to them by His Majesty’s Government, Mr. Arthur Henderson, the Foreign Secretary stated in the House of Commons to-day when Colonel Howard-Bury again asked what the present position is with regard to the negotiations with the French Government in regard to the Dead Sea Concessions granted to Mr. Moses Novomeysky.
The British Government has never admitted the validity of the claim put forward by the French Government on behalf of a prewar concession held by French nationals for extracting mineral salts from the Dead Sea, it has been stated officially, and the French Government was informed as far back as April 1928 of the reasons for which the British Government is unable to recognise the validity of the concession. The French Government thereupon asked the British Government if it is ready to submit the question to The Hague Court of International Justice, and correspondence on the subject is still pending. The question has been frequently raised in the House of Commons, generally by Colonel Howard-Bury, who on one occasion suggested that an injunction should be served on Mr. Novomeysky for working the concession before the matter was decided by the International Court of Justice.
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