§ SIR CHARLES WOODsaid, he rose to reply to a question put by the hon. Member for Herefordshire (Mr. Mildmay) at an earlier period of the evening. The hon. Gentleman had asked whether there was any truth in the statements that had been published respecting transactions which were alleged to have taken place at Cairo. He had received a Report from the Consul General of Egypt announcing an outrage of the grossest possible character. The right hon. Baronet read an extract from the Report of the Consul, stating that a party of from twenty-five to thirty persons, including two ladies, visited the Great Mosque, and, not content with being permitted to enter, sought to in- 250 trude upon the space set apart for the family of the Viceroy, and when there conducted themselves with great impropriety, ridiculing and mocking the genuflections of the worshippers. Nothing could exceed the kind and proper conduct of the Viceroy. He sent remonstrances, and when those were found to be unavailing a body of cavasses surrounded the offenders, not only to remove them from the Mosque, but also to protect them from the anger of a justly irritated crowd. The Consul, on receiving intelligence of the affair, called the next day upon the officers of the Mosque and offered them an apology, which they received very kindly. By that time the passengers had gone on by railway, and he had no certain information as to who were the parties. The Consul did not report that any of them were officers in the Indian service, but it might be inferred from some expression in the Report that such was the case. The noble Lord the Foreign Secretary had submitted the account to him (Sir C. Wood), and he sent out directions by the last mail that the senior officers who arrived by that steamer should be called upon to report the circumstances of the affair, and the names of those persons in the Indian service if any, who were engaged in it. Those directions had been sent to Madras and Calcutta, and would be sent to Bombay by the next mail. With respect to the future, he might say that the Consul in Egypt had been instructed, in case of a similar occurrence, to act upon the powers he possessed, and to arrest upon the spot every British subject that might be guilty of such conduct.
§ COLONEL SYKESasked whether the right hon. Baronet had previously received any unfavourable account of the conduct of Indian officers?
§ SIR CHARLES WOODsaid, he had intended to add that he should be very sorry to have it supposed that such conduct was habitual among Indian officers, and in respect to this case he hoped the House would suspend its judgment on the individuals until the details were known.