§ MR. MILNER GIBSONsaid, he wished to put a question to the noble Lord the Member for the City of London in reference to a statement that had appeared in the public press, of certain demands having been made by the Turkish Government on the Government of Greece. He wished to ask whether the English Ambassador had been any party to those demands on the Government of Greece, and whether those demands included the request that the Greek newspapers should 876 be suppressed that gave any opinions adverse to the Government of Turkey?
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLsaid he could not answer the question so satisfactorily as he could wish at that moment. The demands that were made by the Turkish Minister upon the Greek Government were made by order of the Turkish Government, and without any concert with Her Majesty's Ministers; but after those demands had been made, at the time when they were under consideration, the representatives of the four Powers of England, France, Austria, and Prussia met, and they came to a resolution, which they submitted to the Greek Government, that the Greek Goverment ought to give an answer to those demands, which in themselves were reasonable. The explanation which our Minister at Athens gave with respect to the article about the press, was to the effect that what the Turkish Minister asked was, that the Greek Government would not in their own newspapers have articles inserted exciting rebellion amongst the Turks in the Turkish provinces, and that this demand was founded on the generally notorious fact that the Greek Government were in the habit of so acting.