HC Deb 29 March 1855 vol 137 cc1294-5
MR. APSLEY PELLATT

said, he begged to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, whether there still existed in Turkey a law which condemns to death a Mussulman convert to Christianity; and, if so, whether this Government, or our allies the French, have or intend exercising their influence to abolish so unjust a punishment?

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON

The hon. Member will see, if he refers to the papers which were laid upon the table in May, 1844, called "Correspondence relative to executions in Turkey for apostasy from Islamism," that Sir Stratford Canning, on the 23rd of March of that year, writes a despatch in which he states that he has obtained an assurance from the Sultan, and a formal document from the Turkish Government, providing that no such executions should take place in future. In giving an account of the audience which he had with the Sultan upon the subject, he says— What passed at this audience is the more important from its formal character; and the Sultan, to give a greater value to it, after I had retired from his presence, called back the dragoman and desired him to assure me that what he had stated in public proceeded from his sincere convictions, and was, in fact, his real and sincere sentiment. The official document to which Sir Stratford Canning referred stated that, in relinquishing the practice of executions for apostasy, it was the special intention of His Highness the Sultan that the cordial relations with the high Powers should be preserved, and the Sublime Porte engaged to take effectual measures to prevent from henceforward the execution of any persons for apostasy.

MR. APSLEY PELLATT

Does not that apply to Christians becoming Mussulmans and then apostatising, and not to the case which I have put?

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON

I understand it to apply to the whole case.