§ MR. E. JENKINSasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether his attention has been called to the fact that the account of murders and outrages upon refugees who had returned to their homes at Ochievo in Bosnia have been fully confirmed by inquiry on the spot, as reported in the "Manchester Guardian" of Saturday the 21st instant; whether any inquiry has yet been made or any information received by the Foreign Office concerning these outrages; and, what steps Her Majesty's Government propose to take to procure full and accurate information of occurrences in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
§ MR. BOURKEI have seen the letter referred to by the hon. Member for Dundee, and I have to state that telegrams were received some days ago by Her Majesty's Ambassador at Vienna, stating that an Englishman (Mr. Evans) had arrived at Trieste, and that he was from personal inspection enabled to corroborate what had already been stated in The Manchester Guardian with regard to the outrages at Ochievo. That information, which was received by Her Majesty's Ambassador at Vienna, was telegraphed to Mr. Holmes, Her Majesty's Consul at Bosnia-Seraï, and Mr. Holmes immediately telegraphed to Mr. Freeman, who had been despatched some days before to Glamotch to investigate other outrages which have been alluded to in this House, and also in The Manchester Guardian. Instruc- 1742 tions have been sent by Mr. Holmes to Mr. Freeman to go to Ochievo to investigate the outrages alluded to in The Manchester Guardian last Saturday after he had investigated those at Glamotch. I may state that Glamosh and Ochievo are both on the Croatian frontier, and according to the map they are, I should think, about 150 or 160 miles from Mostar and Bosnia-Seraï. Now, I must remind the House and the lion. Member that it is quite impossible for Consuls who are performing their duty in one part of Turkey to be able to state what is going on in another part—particularly in a district like the one in question, which is very mountainous, and where there are no roads. At the same time, we shall hope to get all the information we possibly can upon this subject by the means which I have already stated.