§ MR. W. EWARTsaid, he begged to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether it would be within the views of the Government to employ its influence with the Ottoman Government to promote the construction of a serviceable road from Trebizond to Erzeroum, as a means of opening the central parts of Asia to commerce and manufactures?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONsaid, Her 1410 Majesty's Government had for several years been urging the Turkish Government to construct a road between Trebizond and Erzeroum. The reasons alleged for not undertaking this important work had been the want of adequate means to cover the expense, but very recently the most urgent representations had been addressed to the Turkish Government as to the absolute necessity, not merely in a commercial, but in a military point of view, of completing that road.