§ MR. A. EGERTONasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If any information has reached the Foreign Office in regard to alleged wholesale massacres of native Christians in Japan?
§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDInformation, Sir, has to-day reached the Foreign Office from our Chargé d' Affaires in Japan, to the effect that 60 or 70 heads of families professing the Christian faith had been sent away from villages in the neighbourhood of Nagasaki by steamer to another part of the country. The Government at Yedo had expressed its regret that such a step should have been taken by the local authorities, and had despatched officials to inquire into the matter, of which details were wanting. We have no report of any actual cruelties having been practised on individuals.