§ MR. MONSELLsaid, he wished to know, Whether the noble Lord the Foreign Secretary was prepared to lay on the table further papers in reference to the affairs of Syria? The question was discussed at some length on the previous night, but it was obvious that no satisfactory discussion of that great and most important question could really take place until some official and authentic information was laid before the House. The last official information on the subject came down to the end of July, and that conveyed the frightful in- 1230 telligence of the massacres in Syria, and of the means by which those massacres were carried on, and showed the large part the Turkish authorities took in promoting them. One of the last documents was a letter from Sir Henry Bulwer stating that the responsibility of the Ottoman Porte was greatly enhanced from the fact that he had not allowed a single week to elapse for a whole year in which he had not brought the matter under the attention of Fuad Pasha and other principal persons connected with the Turkish Government. No more official information had been afforded, but all sorts of hints were thrown out with the view to deprive the sufferers of sympathy, and to excite sympathy on behalf of the perpetrators of the massacres. He did not wish to give any opinion on the point whether the French troops should evacuate Syria, or whether there should be a joint occupation; but he contended that it was essential to have a full discussion of the subject, and it would be an eternal disgrace to leave the poor Christians in the Lebanon to a Power unable to protect them, for another frightful massacre might thereupon happen. All the private information he had received on the subject led him to believe that the removal of all Christian protection or force in Syria would be followed by a renewal of the massacres. He wished also to ask whether the noble Lord the Foreign Secretary would object to lay on the table the Reports made to Sir Henry Bulwer, the British Ambassador at Constantinople, during the last autumn, by the British consular agents in Turkey as to the state of the Christians in that country?
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLsaid, that he would at once though briefly reply to the Question of the right hon. Gentleman. The last paper relative to Syria laid on the table was the convention entered into by the Powers with the Ottoman Porte, which was presented to the House at the commencement of the present Session. With regard to the negotiations, he should be ready to lay the papers on the table; but he could not. consistently with a due regard to the public service, do so at present. Negotiations and discussions were going on—some at Beyrout, some at Constantinople, and some at Paris, and it was impossible, in the midst of these negotiations, to lay the papers on the table without injury to the public service. He hoped immediately before Easter or immediately after it to be able to lay on 1231 the table all the papers in relation to the affairs of Syria, and those papers would contain the Reports of the consular agents to Sir Henry Bulwer, to which the right hon. Member had alluded. He thought it would be well that he should now answer a Question put to him the other night by the hon. Member for Horsham (Mr. S. Fitz-Gerald) with respect to the part taken by the French Government—namely, whether a representation or note was presented by the Russian Ambassador to the Ottoman Porte, and whether that was supported by the French Ambassador. He had no means the other night of answering the latter part of that question, but he now had to say that Earl Cowley had received from M. Thouvenel an intimation that the French Ambassador did not interfere in any way either to support the proposal of the Russian Ambassador or to give any opinion on it. The only opinion the French Ambassador gave was in the form of an expression of a hope that reforms would speedily be introduced, and that thus the necessity of the meeting of the Ambassadors proposed by Her Majesty's Government would be prevented.