MR. SULLIVANasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the attention of Her Majesty's Government has been called to certain statements in a Letter addressed by Prince Bismarck to the German Emperor, dated the 14th day of April 1873, published in the German official Gazette of the 25th day of January last, to the effect that when at one time there had been an intention of sending Count Arnim as Ambassador to this Country, the project was abandoned because, when the usual steps were taken to ascertain how the appointment would be received here, "the most violent protests" were put forward on the ground that Count Arnim was so unscrupulous in his departures from truth that "no one could believe a word he said;" and, whether there is, as far as Her Majesty's Government are concerned, any truth in the foregoing statement of Count Bismarck?
§ MR. BOURKEAlthough I have seen the letter published in the German 876 Gazette from Prince Bismarck to the German Emperor, I cannot say that the attention of Her Majesty's Government has been directed to the letter, for there is no official correspondence on the subject in the Foreign Office. If there was any correspondence in 1873, before Her Majesty's Government came into office, it must necessarily have been of a private and exclusively confidential character, and Her Majesty's Government have no information whatever with regard to any such communications.