COLONEL SYKESsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether the sum of 3,000 dollars in money and the value of presents stated by Mr. Flad in his letter to the Earl of Clarendon, no date, but received 10th of July, 1866, and numbered 30, to have been given to Mr. Consul Cameron by King Theodore, has been credited to the British Exchequer; and, whether the sum of 25,000 German crowns, embracing value in presents, stated by Mr. Flad in the same letter to have been given to Mr. Rassam by King Theodore, has been credited to the British Exchequer; and, if not, whether any Reports of the receipt of these sums by Messrs. Cameron and Rassam has been made to the Government?
§ MR. HUNTsaid, in reply, that neither the money stated by Mr. Flad to have been given to Mr. Consul Cameron by King Theodore nor that said to have been received by Mr. Rassam had been credited to Her Majesty's Exchequer. The matter was one which hardly fell within his Department; but he had obtained information from the proper quarter, and found that Mr. Rassam reported to Colonel Merewether and the Foreign Office that he had received 10,000 dollars and other presents from the King; and from Mr. Flad's letter, referred to by the hon. and gallant 644 Member, it appeared that when Mr. Rassam was arrested, the money in his possession, 6,800 dollars, was taken from him. The only reference which could be found in Mr. Consul Cameron's report to any money received by him was contained in a des-patch dated October 31, 1862, in which he said that the King had sent him a present of 1,000 dollars, which he had, at great risk of incurring the King's displeasure, refused to accept. He added that in order not to irritate the King he would hand over the 1,000 dollars to the Negaderass of Odona. In the same despatch Mr. Cameron reported that he had accepted certain presents of arms on the behalf of Her Majesty.