§ MR. FRANCIS STEVENSON (Suffolk, Eye)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has received any confirmation of the statement telegraphed to the Daily News of the 19th instant that the Persian Kurds are being-constantly sap-plied with Martini-Henry rifles by the Turkish authorities; that more than 50,000 rifles have been issued from the different Government stores; and that the armament of the Kurds is causing-anxiety in Teheran, and alarm among 1024 the Armenian and Nestorian Christians, who dread a great massacre?
§ SIR J. FERGUSSONWe have received no confirmation of the statement referred to; but the British Representative on the spot has described a similar statement, which appeared shortly before it, as absurd.