MR. JOSEPH COWENwished to ask the Government two Questions regarding Egypt which were not of a political character, and which probably could be answered without Notice. He wished to know whether the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs could give the House any information as to the action Her Majesty's Government had taken for the discovery of Professor Palmer, Captain Gill, and Lieutenant Charrington, and as to the position in which these unfortunate gentlemen had been placed? He desired also to know whether the Government were aware of the treatment to which prisoners were subjected in Egyptian prisons? It was alleged that something like 3,000 prisoners were subjected to very harsh treatment, and even to torture; and in a telegram published this morning in The Daily News, a Cairo Correspondent states that—
Two Members of the National Chamber accused of having furnished Arabi with voluntary contributions are now chained together in an underground dungeon which has only been opened thrice in the last fifteen days. The condition of the prisoners and of the den is foul beyond description. There are scores of such instances, illustrative of the cowardly and ferocious character of the attempts to crush the 73 National movement, which was genuine so far as it went, by the rotten Government whose existence would not be worth an hour's purchase if the English Army were withdrawn.
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKESir, I have already received private Notice from my hon. Friends the Member for Northampton (Mr. Labouchere) and the Member for Carlisle (Sir Wilfrid Lawson) with regard to Questions of the same kind for to-morrow, and I think it will be better that I should leave them all until to-morrow, when I will be able to answer them more fully than I can now. As to the first matter referred to, it is receiving great attention from the Government.