§ MR. MONKsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether he will lay upon the Table of the House, further Correspondence respecting the Disturbances in Crete, in continuation of Correspondence presented to Parliament, May 21, 1868. He thought he was justified in putting the question to the noble Lord, seeing that the documents to which he referred had been published in the St. Petersburg Gazette, and were therefore now public documents. He had himself received authentic information from Crete up to the 5th of July to the effect that the insurrection was still in full force, and that the Turkish general and the Turkish army were in a desponding state, and believed it to be impossible for them to re-conquer the country. He regretted that the noble Lord had expressed his intention not to interfere, except by friendly advice to the Porte; but he acknowledged that in taking that course the noble Lord was carrying out the policy of non-intervention in foreign affairs which had been sanctioned by the House, and had now obtained for some years. In asking the noble Lord whether he would lay on the Table any further Correspondence which he might have received, he must say that he thought nothing but the independence of Crete and its separation from Turkey would satisfy the brave men whose heroic struggle deserved more sympathy than they had obtained from the present Parliament.
LORD STANLEYThe only Answer that I can give the hon. Member is that since the month of May last—at which time I laid on the table Papers on the subject of Crete—no information has reached me which is of the slightest general interest or importance. The fact is that the state of things in the island has continued pretty much as it was. The attention of European diplomacy has been diverted to other subjects. I have looked through all the despatches which I have received since the period I have named, and I do not think there is any one of them of such general interest or importance as to make it worth while to lay it on the table of the House. It is not at all a question of keeping back any facts or any statements of opinion on grounds of 1748 policy. It simply comes to this—that there are no Papers on the subject of Crete which I think either the House or the hon. Member would at all care to see. The Reports are of the most commonplace kind. The state of things in the island, I repeat, has continued very much what it was; and no considerable operations have occurred in any quarter.