COLONEL DUNNEsaid, he rose to call attention to the recent Treaties for the cession of the Ionian Islands to the Kingdom of Greece; and to ask, if, by any provisions in them, engagements are made for the payment of the arrears of contributions due by those Islands to Great Britain, as well as for the pensions granted to British subjects for services under the Ionian Government. It would be recollected that the protectorate of England commenced in the year 1815, we having taken the whole of the islands with the exception of Corfu, which was a strongly fortified island, and was held by the French, until the end of the war. By the Treaty of Paris it was placed with the other Ionian Islands, under the protectorate of this country, and it was stipulated that the Ionian Islands should themselves support the garrison and maintain the fortifications. Sir Thomas Maitland, at an early period, became the Governor. He was very anxious to improve the revenues of the country, but when he came to examine, it was said he found three oboli was the whole amount of treasure in the Ionian treasury. Sir Thomas did not require the Ionians to fulfil their stipulations in regard to the fortifications, and when he retired, he left the Treasury with a balance of £100,000. Subsequently, Sir Frederick Adam who succeeded him as Lord High Commissioner, made another arrangement, and he required, in addition to the lodging of the troops, that the Ionians should provide £20,000 for the fortifications; but the Islanders soon fell into arrear. In 1834 Lord Nugent made another arrangement by which the total sum to be paid by the Ionian Republic to the Protecting State was reduced to £30,000, and subsequently Lord Seaton still further reduced it to £25,000 a year. Still there was a large balance due to this country. He (Colonel Dunne) some time ago moved for a Return of the sums due, and they were returned at from £90,000 to £100,000. He thought this Return must be incorrect, because when he was in the Ionian Islands in 1844 the sum in arrear was nearly half a million. But whatever the sum was, he wished to know what means had been taken to secure to this country the amount, or whether the amount had been forgiven. If that were so, he 1083 would like to know whether it was within the powers of the Crown to forego such a claim without the authority of Parliament. He was not aware whether such authority was absolutely necessary, but he thought such a claim should not be abandoned without some Parliamentary sanction. In the recent treaty for the cession of the Ionian Islands, were two very curious provisions. By the ninth Article it was agreed, that Her Majesty would recommend to the Government of the Ionian Islands to appropriate £10,000 a year to augment the civil list of King George. Seeing that England had agreed to abandon the protectorate, he did not understand by what right we could interfere with the Islands in the disposal of their revenue, and it appeared to him that Greece had more power to enforce that payment than we had. It seemed a strange provision to introduce into our treaty. Of course, he could not suppose it intended by that treaty that this House should guarantee such a sum, but he would like to know whether anything like a guarantee that would implicate this country had been given for the payment of that £10,000 a year. Another provision was, that each Power that was a party to the treaty should pay £4,000 a year to the civil list out of the money to be paid to them by Greece. What monies were coming to them from Greece? Were the payments to be made out of the Greek loan, or what sum was alluded to in the treaty? Another question he had to put was concerning certain British subjects who had been employed in the service of Greece. There were from fifteen to twenty persons at present receiving pensions from the Ionian Islands, and those persons felt extremely nervous with regard to their pensions when the Ionian Islands should be severed from this country. Had the kingdom of Greece guaranteed the payment? Some of these persons had been many years in the service. The entire sum of the pensions amounted to £6,243; but not a word was said about it in the treaty. There were also some other British gentlemen still in the employment of the Ionian Islands, and he wished to know whether they were to be transferred to the service of the King of Greece, or what provision was to be made for them? He believed that about £10,000 a year would be due for the payment of those employés, and he wished to know what security there was that that money would be paid. He would 1084 not now enter at any length into the general question of the policy of the cession of the Ionian Islands, as the question was to be brought forward shortly by the Members for Galway; but he should state that he regretted that event. He believed that if certain complications were to arise, the loss of that position might operate very disadvantageously for this country. The late Sir Charles Napier had pointed out the fact that Corfu, which was distant by about eighty hours' steaming from any strong position in the Mediterranean, whether in Asia, Europe, or Africa, was one of the most valuable possessions we could hold in that quarter. Sir Charles Napier had foreseen the course of trade would return to the Mediterranean route, and urged the importance of England possessing a stronghold which should command the Adriatic, through which the trade of Constantinople, Smyrna, Alexandria, Tunis, Malta, and Sicily, with Europe, would probably pass. He felt, no doubt, that Turkey had insisted that the fortifications of Corfu should be effectually dismantled, because, unless that should be done, Corfu would remain a source of constant danger to Turkey, whose frontier might from that point be at any moment turned. He believed, too, that Austria would never have consented to our surrender of the protectorate of the Islands if those fortifications were to be left standing. But he should add that he apprehended more difficulty than was usually supposed would have to be encountered in the destruction of old fortifications. It was a security to either Turkey or Austria to destroy the works we had ourselves erected; there was a mass of ancient Venetian fortifications which might be made of great military value if not removed, and he did not believe we could do so. He had risen, however, principally for the purpose of expressing a hope that means would be taken for continuing the payment of the allowances to British subjects who had served the Government in that quarter, and he should be glad to know, whether Her Majesty's Ministers had taken effectual means to secure that object?
MR. EVANSsaid, he did not agree with the hon. and gallant Member who had preceded him as to the policy of our cession of these Islands. He believed that that was a very judicious measure, and that the Government would have failed in their duty if they had not embraced a favourable opportunity of ceding them. But 1085 he should join the hon. and gallant Gentleman in urging upon the Government the propriety of their adopting the means necessary to ensure the payment of those pensions to public servants in the Islands. He had addressed inquiries upon that subject to the hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for the Colonies, and the hon. Gentleman had told him that the claims of these gentlemen had been scheduled in the treaty, and sent to the Greek Government for the purpose of their entering into an engagement to meet those charges. But he could not help doubting whether such an arrangement would afford a perfectly satisfactory security. The pensions to those gentlemen who were appointed, not by the Ionian Government but by the Colonial Office, and whose salaries were paid out of the Lord High Commissioners' Civil List, and who had special claims on the British Government, amounted to about £6,300 a year; and out of that sum £2,000 were due to gentlemen of seventy years or upwards; £2,000 more to gentlemen of the ages of between sixty and seventy; and the remaining £2,300 to gentlemen under sixty; so that the charge could not be considered by any means one of a very onerous description. He hoped, under these circumstances, the Government would make such arrangements as would remove from the minds of those gentlemen any apprehension as to the continuance of the allowances to which they were entitled. He was willing to hope that the Greek Government would fulfil their engagements; but war or revolution might occur, and the noble Lord at the head of the Government would, no doubt, recollect that some years ago strong measures were required to make Greece meet the just demands of British subjects.
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUEsaid, he would not then discuss the general question of the policy of the cession of these islands, which was to be brought before the House as a substantive question before long, but would pass at once to the special questions that had been put to him by the hon. and gallant Gentleman. It was provided by the Treaty of 1815 that a convention should at a future time be entered into between the protecting Government and the Ionian State regulating the military contribution. No such convention was entered into till 1836, when an article, in the nature of a convention, was inserted in the Charter of the Ionian Islands, binding the Ionian Government to 1086 pay annually the sum of £35,000 a year. Between 1816 and 1836 very considerable sums were paid by the Ionian Government under different heads, such as contributions towards the expenses of the staff, contributions towards the erection of fortifications, and other items, the average total of which was about £35,000 per annum, and it was thought in 1836 that that sum might be fairly required as the annual contribution. It was soon found that that amount was higher than the Ionian revenues would bear; arrears began to accumulate, and by 1844, when the accounts were adjusted, there remained unpaid some £60,000. In 1844 another change was made, and the contribution fixed at one-fifth of the whole Ionian revenues, which was intended to form a lighter burden than the previous one; but even under that arrangement a certain amount of arrears accrued, and in 1849, when large reforms were introduced under the government of Lord Seaton, those arrears had reached the sum of £90,000. Reasons were stated by the Ionian authorities why that should not be looked upon as strictly speaking a debt due by them, and certain matters were put forward by way of set-off. However, the arrears stood then at £90,000. In that year, 1849, the Ionian Government bound itself to pay £25,000 by quarterly payments, and since that time that annual sum had been punctually and strictly paid. No additional arrears had occurred since that time. When the arrangement was made lately for the cession of the Ionian Islands, it was not the opinion of the Government that the long-standing arrear should now be insisted upon, and one of the terms of the cession laid before the Assembly was that the arrear of £90,000 should not be pressed. The House would think this was a natural and fair course to pursue under the circumstances, and this was the answer he had to give to his hon. and gallant Friend upon that point. With respect to the pensions and compensations which had been alluded to on both sides of the House, there were certain officials of the Ionian Islands, both native Ionians and English subjects, who were entitled to pensions under the Ionian Pension List. Their names had been inserted in the schedule to the treaty which had gone out for acceptance by the Government of Greece; but it had not yet been accepted. By an article in that treaty the Greek Government pledged itself to continue punc- 1087 tual payment of those pensions, the sum with respect to British subjects being charged on the Ionian revenues, and pay able by the Greek Government by quarterly payments to the British Consul at Corfu. With respect to compensations for loss of office, to which reference had been made by his hon. Friend behind him (Mr. Evans), the same course had been taken. There were certain gentlemen, not many in number, who on such an occasion had strong claims on the consideration and care of the Government, and they had not been forgotten. Some had been appointed by the Secretary of State to permanent offices, such as Secretary to the Lord High Commissioner, the Treasurer, the Judges of the Supreme Court, and some others. The compensation provided for them was n fair proportion of their salaries; and the Greek Government, if it accept the treaty, will be bound to pay these compensations during the lives of those gentlemen on fixed days, in quarterly payments in a lump sum, to the British Minister at Athens, and by him to be distributed among the recipients. There were other gentlemen, not, literally speaking, in the same position as the Secretary to the Lord High Commissioner and the others he had named, inasmuch as they had not been appointed by the Secretary of State; but they were hound to treat them as permanent officers, and place them on precisely the same footing as the English officials of whom he had spoken. Their names had been put in the schedule, and the Greek Government would be bound to pay compensation to them in the same way as to the other officials. That was the security for the pensions and compensations of these gentlemen on which the Government had insisted. The whole sum, as had been stated, was a small one. The Greek Government would distinctly bind itself, in both cases, to pay over the sum to the British Minister at Athens, or the British Consul at Corfu, and it would be distributed among the recipients from time to time. That was a full security to these gentlemen, and there was no reason to doubt they would in future be regularly paid.
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUEsaid, that sum was made by the treaty a first charge on the revenue of the Ionian Islands, and was to be paid to the King of Greece to increase his Civil List.
MR. KINGLAKEsaid, he did not understand his hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire, to complain that the Government had neglected to make fair terms with the Government of Greece for payment of these officials, but to express an opinion that there was not that degree of confidence in the Greek Government to make this a sufficient security. His understanding of the matter rested on this footing:—Her Majesty's Government had obtained the services of a number of English gentlemen, who gave up other occupations for offices which they thought would be permanent. Circumstances occurred to induce the Government suddenly to put an end to their official duties, and it had always been the practice in such cases to consider that a moral debt was incurred by the Government, and that these officials were entitled to some kind of recompense, generally in the form of pensions. Now, if there be a moral debt, it was clearly a moral debt due from England and not from Greece. It was quite natural that Government should make terms to recoup themselves from Greece; but primarily the moral debt, as he had said, was due from England to these gentlemen, and unless that could be questioned it must be understood that due payment of these sums was guaranteed by the Government.