MR. H. G. LIDDELLsaid, he rose to call the attention of the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Control to the following paragraph, which appeared in the Times of that morning:—
The intelligence of the establishment of a Russian army on the Oxus is confirmed; also, 52 that an alliance, offensive and defensive, has been concluded between the Russians and Dost Mahomed, the Khan of Khiva, and the Khan of Bokhara.He wished to know whether the report of the advance of the Russians to the Oxus was correct, and also whether the Government had received any authentic intelligence of the conclusion of any such alliance between the Czar, the Khans of Bokhara and Khiva, and Dost Mahomed?
§ SIR CHARLES WOODsaid, with regard to the advance of the Russians, it would be certainly difficult to prove a negative, but he believed there was not the slightest truth in the statement. The Government had not received any information of the kind; on the contrary, the last news the Government had received rendered it almost certain that the report could not be true. That information was contained in a letter from Mr. Stevens, our Consul at Tabreez, dated January 4th, in which he reported a conversation he had had with a Mr. Khanikoff, an old Russian friend:—
In the course of conversation (said Mr. Stevens) I introduced the subject of the reported Russian expedition to Khiva and Bokhara; Mr. Khanikoff denied that anything of the kind had taken place. He said the report must have originated in the following manner:—Some subjects of Kokan had erected a fort within the Russian boundary, on the right bank of Syr Dagria; a body of Russians was despatched thither, and, after destroying the fort, returned to its quarters at Kaimak.Now the Syr Dagria was a river which ran along the Russian boundary into the Lake of Aral on the north-east, while, on the contrary, the Oxus, which passed through Khiva, ran into the Lake of Aral at its south end; so that it was not at all probable that the Russians had advanced so far. With regard to the second question—whether the Government had any information respecting the conclusion of an alliance between the Czar, the Khans of Khiva and Bokhara, and Dost Mahomed, he could only say they had no such information, and he believed the story to be equally destitute of foundation, as the despatch received this morning from Lahore, in the Punjab, quoted some intelligence from a news-letter at Cabul, dated 27th of December, which represented Dost Mahomed as busily engaged in hostilities with his brother, and fearful—needlessly fearful, he must say—of an invasion of our troops into his country; but no mention whatever was made of an alliance with the 53 Russians; and indeed, apparently, Dost Mahomed already had his hands too full to be able to turn his attention that way.