§ MR. W. E. FORSTERThe House will, I trust, allow me to make a few observations in explanation of the Question which I wish to ask the Prime Minister, and of which I have given him Notice, respecting the atrocities alleged to have been committed by the Turkish troops in Bulgaria, and especially described in a letter printed in The Daily News of last Friday. Many hon. Members will have read that letter, but for the information of those who have not, I may state that it described with much detail the total destruction of many villages and the massacre of their inhabitants, men, women, and children, by Turkish troops. Those troops are stated to have been generally irregulars, but the name of a Turkish Pasha is given as implicated in the outrages, and it would not appear that the inhabitants of these villages were actually in rebellion. As a rule I should not think of asking the Government a Question either with regard to the treatment by a foreign Government of its subjects or as regards the correctness of anonymous statements in any newspaper, however respectable and influential; but it seems to me important, in forming an opinion on affairs in Turkey, in which we appear just now to be 425 unfortunately much involved, that if allegations such as I have stated are true we should be aware of them, and that if false we should not be misled by them. I should not be acting fairly to the House if I did not add that since last Friday I have received information, not from the office of The Daily News, but from a quarter which is certainly not prejudiced against the Turkish Government, which information appears to me to confirm the substantial truth of these distressing statements. This, however, only makes me the more anxious to know whether the Government have obtained from official sources any contradiction or confirmation, and I, therefore, beg to ask the right hon. Gentleman, Whether he can give the House any information with regard to the truth of the statements which have recently appeared in the public papers, and especially in the "Daily News" of June 23rd, respecting the cruelties alleged to have been committed by the Turkish troops in the suppression of the insurrection in Bulgaria?
§ MR. DISRAELISir, we have no information in our possession which justifies the statements to which the right hon. Gentleman refers. Some time ago, when troubles first commenced in Bulgaria, they appear to have begun by strangers entering the country and burning the villages without reference to religion or race. The Turkish Governmen at that time had no Regular troops in Bulgaria, and the inhabitants, of course, were obliged to defend themselves. The persons who are called Bashi-Bazouks and Circassians are persons who had settled in the country and had a stake in it. I have not the slightest doubt myself that the war, if you can call it a war, between the invaders and the Bashi-Bazouks and Circassians was carried on with great ferocity. One can easily understand, under the circumstances under which these outrages occurred, and with such populations, that that might happen. I am told that no quarter was given, and no doubt scenes took place which we must all entirely deplore. But in the month of May the attention of Sir Henry Elliot was called to this state of things from some information which reached him, and he immediately communicated with the Porte, who at once ordered some Regular troops to repair to Bul- 426 garia, and steps to be taken by which the action of the Bashi-Bazouks and Circassians might be arrested. Very shortly after, the disturbances in Bulgaria seem to have ceased. That is all the information I have to give the right hon. Gentleman on the subject, and I will merely repeat that the information which we have at various times received does not justify the statements made in the journal which he has named.