§ Order for Third Reading read.
§ MR. BAILLIE COCHRANEsaid, he wished to rectify some statements which he had made in the early part of the Session. As, however, the hon. Member for Poole, who had given notice of a Motion respecting the state of Candia, was not present, and as the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the Under Secretary were both absent from the House, it was not his intention to say anything which would lead to controversy. He did not wish to retract anything which he had said in the early part of the Session with regard to the state of affairs in Turkey itself. The consular reports differed very much as to the condition of the Christians in the East, but that was no doubt owing in a great degree to the individual conduct of the pashas who ruled the different districts. But when his hon. Friend the Member for Galway brought forward his Motion, in the early part of the Session, he defended, to the best of his ability, the conduct of the Greek authorities, and he took this opportunity of stating that information which he had since received had led him to the conclusion that the present conduct of the Greek Government with respect to Candia was, to say the least, very injudicious. At the same time, he thought there was plenty of room for the amelioration of the condition of the people in Candia, and that the Turkish Government could not do better than turn their attention to the subject. Still, he was of opinion that no country ought to encourage hostilities against another country with which it was nominally at peace. If the hon. Member for Poole had been present, he should have gone into the matter at greater length, but having always been a friend to the Greek nation and the Greek 1527 Government, he had thought it only fair to the House and to the country to state that his opinion of the conduct of the Greek Government was different from that which he had entertained, and that he thought their present policy was prejudicial to the interest of civilization, and could not be too highly deprecated.
§ Bill read the third time, and passed.