HC Deb 30 May 1851 vol 117 cc261-8
MR. DISRAELI

said, he took that op- portunity of addressing an inquiry respecting a petition which he had had the honour of presenting on Monday, and which, on his Motion, had since been printed and circulated among hon. Members. He now begged the permission of the House to make a short statement before he put a question which, in his opinion, nearly concerned the national honour, and appealed to the best feelings of hon. Gentlemen on both sides of the House. In the year 1835 an English gentleman, in the military service of the Honourable East India Company (Lieutenant Wyburd) was sent by the British Envoy at the Court of Persia on a highly important and perilous diplomatic mission to Khiva. No information had ever been received that Lieutenant Wyburd had reached Khiva; and ten years elapsed, after he left Persia to proceed to Khiva, before any information respecting that gentleman transpired. In 1845 it was reported that Lieutenant Wyburd had never reached Khiva, but on his way thither had been seized and put to death by the Ameer of Bokhara. Under these circumstances, the ladies, his sisters, whose petition he (Mr. Disraeli) had presented the other day, addressed the Government, and entreated them to make inquiries as to the fate of their brother. Her Majesty's Government instituted such inquiries, and the information they obtained was, that Lieutenant Wyburd, their brother, had been seized and placed in captivity by the Ameer of Bokhara, but that it was believed he was dead. Some time after that the petitioners learnt that, although it was a fact that Lieutenant Wyburd had been placed in captivity by the Ameer of Bokhara, he was not dead; and they called on Her Majesty's Government to make representations to the Potentate in whose power they believed their brother was, and to claim him as a British subject in the employment of the Crown; but their representations were met by the assumption—and the probable assumption he (Mr. Disraeli) was bound to admit—that Lieutenant Wyburd was no more. Now, three years after that, namely, in 1848, thirteen years after the period when Lieutenant Wyburd had been sent by the British Envoy at the Court of Persia on that perilous mission, it was discovered that he was not only alive, but that he had escaped from the power of the Ameer of Bokhara, and, in seeking refuge, had been seized by the Khan of Khokan, and was at that moment in a state of slavery. The Khan of Khokan had despatched a letter to Lieutenant Colonel Law- rence, the British Agent at Peshawur, in which he said:— I have seized a Sahib at the Fort of Huzrut Sooltan, who came by the road of Tajkund and Dusht-i-Kazak; his name is Wypart, an Englishman, he says, and not a Russian, and that he has been travelling many years. He has two Persians with him, named Mohammed and Hussein, who say they were formerly in Stoddart's service, and were sold at Bokhara, and were purchased by Wypart. These men say their master is English. Now I have sent Allahdad to ascertain from you whether he is really English or not; that, should he be so, I may treat him with honour, but if Russian, that I may punish him. Let the House observe that was thirteen years after Lieutenant Wyburd was sent upon the mission. Three years ago, when the discovery was made that Lieutenant Wyburd was still alive, and notwithstanding that letter of the Khan of Khokan, the petitioners stated that, with the exception of one letter received from the Secretary of the Honourable East India Company, two years after that, and now more than one year ago, they had never been able to receive any information of their brother, or to hear of any measure having been adopted to obtain his release. A letter to these ladies from the Secretary of the Honourable East India Company stated that he had communicated with the Khan of Khokan, through the native Resident at i Pcshawur, in order to obtain his release; hut they complained that they had been kept in perfect ignorance of the nature of that communication, and they stated that they had no confidence in the interposition exercised by native agents, and they prayed Her Majesty's Government to obtain the freedom and vindicate the rights of their enterprising and distinguished brother. The petitioners further stated their readiness to pay the expenses of an English officer who had undertaken the task of endeavouring to reach Khokan, provided the Government would give their sanction and approval to such a course, and invest him with proper authority. This request had been declined, and they now appealed to the House of Commons as their last resource. His object in again pressing the question on the notice of the House was to invite the Government, and others who might be officially acquainted with the facts of the case, to give some explanation of their views; and he trusted that he might hear from the Government that steps were taken from this moment, which might bring about a result which the people of England could not fail to view without satisfaction.

MR. ELLIOT

said, it was impossible to allude to the subject which the hon. Gentleman had brought under the notice of the House without sympathising deeply with the ladies who were the petitioners; and he need scarcely add that the sympathy which had been excited in that House was shared in by the Government and the Court of Directors. The hon. Gentleman (Mr. Disraeli) had stated that after the petitioners had been for ten years in uncertainty as to the fate of their brother, a rumour reached them that he had been put to death, and the foundation for that rumour was a letter from Lieutenant Colonel Shiel to Viscount Palmerston, dated 10th of August, 1845, which he would read:— I am also inclined to believe, from the circumstances stated to Ameer Bey, by the people of Khiva, that the person who was known to have been murdered by a Yamoot, Toorkoman chief, a few years before Ameer Bey's capture, and whose dress, hair, &c, were minutely described, and who had found his way to the camp of the Toorkoman chief, from Asterabad, could be no other than Lieutenant Wyburd, of the Indian Navy, who, in the summer of 1835, left Téhéran (when Sir John Campbell was Envoy in Persia) with the view of penetrating to Khiva, and of whom no information has been received by us since he left Asterabad. This was the foundation for the report that Lieutenant Wyburd was dead. A long time elapsed after this before anything further was heard of Lieutenant Wyburd, but on the 20th of March, 1848, a messenger arrived from the Khan of Khokan, with a letter for Colonel Lawrence, in which he said, "I have seized a Sahib at the fort of Huzrut Sooltan, who says his name is Wypart, and that he is an Englishman;" and that he had sent to know whether he was English, in order to treat him with honour, or, if a Russian, to punish him. Colonel Lawrence interrogated the messenger, and from his answer was led to believe that the person detained by the Khan was Lieutenant Wyburd; and from the friendly feeling entertained by the Khan towards the British Government, he flattered himself that there would be no great difficulty in obtaining Lieutenant Wyhurd's release. The House would, he thought, infer that Colonel Lawrence could do no other than assume from this that there would be very little difficulty in effecting the release of Lieutenant Wyburd. Colonel Lawrence showed every attention to the messenger of the Khan, and wrote a letter to the Khan, and also a letter to Lieutenant Wyburd, which the messenger took with him, promising to return with an answer in four months, but he did not; and Colonel Lawrence having waited eighteen months without receiving any answer, wrote another letter to the Khan, which he sent in duplicate by two separate messengers, to one of whom he paid 200 rupees to defray expenses, and to the other, who was a person in a superior station, 400 rupees, undertaking that they should receive such further reward, on the liberation of Lieutenant Wyburd, as Government might determine; but neither of these messengers ever returned. The Government had appealed to the Court of Directors to make further inquiry, and, on the 15th of May, 1850, the Court sent out instructions to the Governor General to take steps with a view to procure this gentleman's release, should he be still alive. Again, on the 29th of January, 1851, the Court wrote to the Governor General, directing him to take every practical means to obtain Lieutenant Wyburd's release from the captivity in which he was held by the Khan of Khokan. This was the latest communication that had been made on the subject. It was natural that these ladies should, under the circumstances, think that the Government had not done all they could in reference to one so dear to them. But there was great difficulty in the matter. If the Khan of Khokan would not give Lieutenant Wyburd up, there would be the greatest difficulty in compelling him to do so. Politically and geographically Khokan was almost inaccessible. It was situated in Central Asia, some five hundred miles to the north-east of Peshawur, and separated from it by ranges of almost impassable mountains, and the only means of coercion would be the sending of an army, which, looking at the nature of the country, the House would hardly, he thought, be disposed to recommend. The only hope, therefore, was in negotiation. These ladies, however, said they had no faith in native agents, and had offered to send a person out themselves to effect their brother's release, if the Government would give him the necessary authority. They stated that they had found a gentleman who was ready to undertake the duty. But the Government had had bitter experience of the result of such interference, in the case of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly: even the letter of the Queen, with Her own signature, to the Khan of Bokhara failed to save their lives. All he could say was that the Government and the East India Company had taken every means in their hands to procure the release of this gentleman. He was sorry to be obliged to give so unsatisfactory an answer; but he did not see how the Government could do more than interfere by means of their agents in India to endeavour by amicable means to restore Lieutenant Wyburd to his country and his friends.

SIR JAMES W. HOGG

said, the statement of the hon. Member for Buckinghamshire (Mr. Disraeli) was substantially correct, and that it was impossible for any one to have listened to it without having had his sympathies excited on behalf of this unfortunate gentleman, Lieutenant Wyburd. His hon. Friend had not, however, adverted to the report which reached this country in 1845, through Dr. Woolff, the distinguished Eastern traveller, and which also confirmed the belief that Lieutenant Wyburd had perished. But a subsequent communication from the Khan of Khokan to Colonel Lawrence in 1848, led to the hope that he was still alive. What had been done since that year was that which required explanation, and that explanation he (Sir J. Hogg) would now endeavour to supply. At all times it was most difficult to communicate with Khokan, as any one must know who was at all conversant with the position of that place. The geographical and political difficulties were almost insuperable. It was between 500 and 600 miles to the north-east of Peshawur. The intervening country presented a continuity of mountains which were nearly inaccessible, and inhabited by barbarous and savage tribes. It was scarcely possible for any one to travel in that country, unless his personal safety was secured by the sanctity of his character. Unless he travelled as a fakir or dervish, there was scarcely a possibility of his escape from death. Being at all times difficult to communicate with Khokan, that difficulty must have been greatly increased by the unhappy outbreak in the north-west of India in 1848, the very time when the letter from the Khan of Khokan reached Colonel Lawrence, who was himself taken prisoner in that year by these lawless tribes, and remained in captivity until late in 1849. Upon his release, Colonel Lawrence despatched a native messenger to the Khan of Khokan, selecting for that purpose one who was most likely to accomplish the object he had in view, and shortly afterwards he despatched a second; but he (Sir J. Hogg) grieved to say, that up to this date no ac- count had been received of cither of them. In January last a despatch was sent from the Court of Directors to the local government of India, desiring that every possible means should be used for the purpose of ascertaining the safety and ensuring the liberation, if possible, of this unfortunate gentleman; and an assurance to that effect was given to the petitioners. When they urged the propriety of sending out a European officer, they were told in reply, that the Court of Directors could not pledge themselves to that particular mode of proceeding, but that the local government should adopt the best means, whatever those means might be. He was sure it would be almost unnecessary for him to say, on behalf of the local authorities and the Court of Directors, that they would do everything in their power to effect the release of Lieutenant Wyburd. Independent of the communication referred to by the hon. Secretary of the Board of Control, a letter dated the 26th October, 1848, had been written to the petitioners, giving them every detail of which the Court of Directors was in possession. Other letters had been addressed to them also on the 6th December, 1849, on the 5th January, 1850, on the 9th May, 1850; and the last letter to which he had adverted was dated the 29th January, 1851. He trusted he had now shown his hon. Friend that there had been some cause, at all events, for the apparent delay which had occurred.

MR. DISRAELI

was sure that both the Government and the Honourable East India Company were animated by the same feelings as those which influenced himself in bringing forward this subject; and he could not but think that the comparative tranquillity which now reigned on the frontier, combined with other favourable circumstances, would facilitate the efforts of the Government and the hon. East India Company to procure the liberation of Lieutenant Wyburd; for he must express his belief that, as far as evidence went, that English officer was still alive and in captivity. He would not press upon the Government his feeling that their answer to the appeal of the petitioners when they offered to send out an envoy on their own behalf, was not exactly satisfactory; because even if the envoy on the part of the ladies failed in his mission, we should not be in the false position with regard to the Khan of Khokan that we were in at this moment, for the gentleman who was now in captivity was the envoy of the Government itself. He could not say more at present on the subject, as the attention of Government had been directed to it.

Subject dropped.