§ MR. MONKsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether he has received any confirmation of the statement made in the newspapers that Omar Pasha had set fire to twenty-three villages, destroyed the vineyards and orchards, and besides burning various mills and buildings, and put to death upwards of 100 women and children, burning some women alive, besides committing other atrocities?
LORD STANLEYSir, the statements to which the hon. Member's Question refers are contained in a manifesto issued by the Candian Revolutionary Committee, and intended to create sympathy and obtain assistance. Such documents by their very nature are not, and are not expected to be, either impartial or strictly accurate, and setting aside wilful misrepresentation, we have only to carry our minds back to the time of the Indian mutiny to recollect what wild exaggerations were long current in reference to the acts of the revolted sepoys. I hope, therefore, for the sake of human nature, that there is very great exaggeration in these statements. Certainly they are not in their full extent confirmed by any Consular Reports which I have received. At the same time it is not only probable but certain that upon both sides in this unhappy contest there have been committed many violent and barbarous acts.