HC Deb 25 July 1882 vol 272 cc1682-3
SIR E. ASSHETON CROSS

I wish to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether Her Majesty's Government have received any telegraphic information which would either confirm or, as I hope, qualify the statements as to massacres in the interior of Egypt which have appeared in the newspapers?

SIR CHARLES W. DILKE

We have received no information since yesterday on the subject. Yesterday I stated that we had heard of massacres in the inte- rior of Egypt; but we really did not know how much credit to attach to accounts of Native travellers who came down to Alexandria. I hesitated, therefore, to say anything on the subject, because frequently before statements have been made and repeated hero which afterwards have been proved to be inaccurate. I stated a few days ago that we had received information of two Englishmen having been murdered in the interior, and names were given; but one of these Englishmen is now stated not to have been murdered, but to have escaped.