§ EARl GRANVILLEMy Lords, I rise to ask the noble Earl the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs a Question on a subject of considerable interest. We are informed that in consequence of the failure of the Andrassy Note, the Three Powers—Germany, Russia, and Austria—have agreed to a second Note. We are further informed that France and Italy have concurred in this Note; but that Her Majesty's Government decline to be a party to it. If this representation of affairs be accurate, it would appear as if the communications on the subject have come to an end. I have, therefore, to ask the noble Earl if, without any injury or inconvenience to the public interests, the noble Earl can give now, or a short time hence, information to the House as to the exact state of this most difficult of questions?
§ THE EARL OF DERBYMy Lords, nothing can be more legitimate than the Question put to me by the noble Earl opposite. But I confess that at the present moment I am not in a position in which I can, in justice to the other parties 1001 concerned, give detailed information as to the result of the late conferences at Berlin. Your Lordships and the public are probably aware that these conferences ended in an agreement between the Governments of Russia, Austria, and Germany to make certain propositions to the Porte with a view to the pacification of the Turkish Provinces now disturbed and the termination of the state of civil war. These propositions, so agreed upon by the three Powers, were laid before the Governments of France, of Italy, and of England, with a request for their adhesion. The French and Italian Governments gave an immediate assent. Her Majesty's Government, after a careful examination of the proposals, found themselves unable to do so. I may say that we came to that decision with regret; and I may perhaps be allowed to add that in taking that view we were not in any degree influenced by a motive which I have seen imputed to us—namely, the fact that we had not been consulted in framing the document to which our assent was asked. If we had thought the plan proposed likely to effect its object, the consideration to which I have referred would not have weighed with us. I am afraid I cannot give further explanations of our reasons for refusal; they would hardly be intelligible, unless I could lay the proposals themselves upon the Table, and that I am not in a position to do. They have not yet, I believe, been formally communicated, to the Turkish Government; it is even possible—though I do not at all assert that it will be so—that they may be modified before they are so communicated; and that being the case, I should not be justified in publishing them without the consent of the Powers with which they originated. As soon as that objection is removed there will not be the slightest desire on my part or that of my Colleagues to keep back from the House any information we may possess on the subject.