§ MR. BAILLIE COCHRANEsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether his attention has been drawn to a letter in The Times of the 21st of September, in which it is stated that in 1862 Mr. Elliott was instructed to inform the Greek Government that England would see with pleasure the annexation of Epirus And Thessaly to Greece, as an earnest of peace and tranquillity in the East; whether there are any Papers in the Foreign Office to prove the accuracy of this statement; and, if so, whether the noble Lord will lay them upon the table?
LORD STANLEYSir, I have seen the letter referred to in the Question of my hon. Friend, and I may therefore state briefly what has occurred. In 1862, when the question of placing an English Prince on the Throne of Greece was much discussed at Athens, a diplomatist in the Turkish service expressed to one of our foreign Ministers his personal conviction that under certain circumstances the Porte would not object to the rectification of the Greek 329 frontier to the advantage of Greece, though involving some sacrifice of Turkish territory. In December of that year, Mr. Elliott was sent on a mission to Athens, not with special reference to that communication, but being there he was instructed to make inquiries on the subject, and the result showed that the diplomatist in question had spoken solely on his own authority, expressing simply his private and personal opinion, and that the Turkish Government entertained a very great objection to any such cession of territory. On receiving that reply, Lord Russell refused to take any further notice of the communication, and nothing more has been done on the subject.