§ LORD EUSTACE CECILasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether any official confirmation has reached the Foreign Office with regard to the prevalence of cholera, typhus, and plague in Persia; and, whether if it be true as reported in the newspapers, that at Shiraz the famine is so great that inhabitants are reduced to eating their own children, any offer has been made by the Indian Government to afford such relief as lies in their power towards mitigating the sufferings of the inhabitants of a neighbouring and friendly State?
§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDSir, official communications have been received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople and from other sources announcing the existence of cholera at several places in Persia, and also the appearance of a disease somewhat resembling the plague. The Reports on this subject have been sent to the Council Office. There is a story in circulation that at a place called Koom a man was discovered who had stolen and subsequently devoured two children, but the inhabitants had the man apprehended, brought before the local authorities, 558 and he was put to death; but it is expressly stated that the inhabitants of that place, though suffering great privations, were far from being reduced to such horrible straits. I am not aware whether the Indian Government have proffered or forwarded any relief to those localities; but recent accounts say that the harvest prospects in Persia for this year were of the most hopeful character.