§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL,who had given Notice to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether a communication from the Turkish Government, stating certain alleged reforms, which was telegraphed on the 9th instant, has reached Her Majesty's Government; whether the article "Amnesty for individuals implicated in the recent events at Philippopolis," means that the perpetrators of the atrocities in that part of the country are to be pardoned and, whether "Mr. Baker, an English colonel," to whom has been confided the scheme for the future protection by a gendarmerie of the people of the Christian provinces, is the same person who was removed from Her Majesty's Army in consequence of his conviction in a criminal court under well known circumstances? said, he had been advised by an authority to which he thought it right always to defer, that it would be better that the last part of the Question should not be put; he would therefore content himself with asking the hon. Gentleman, Whether a communication from the Turkish Government, stating certain alleged reforms, which was telegraphed on the 9th instant, has reached Her Majesty's Government; whether the article, "Amnesty for individuals implicated in the recent events 324 at Phillippopolis," means that the perpetrators of the atrocities in that part of the country are to be pardoned?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERMr. Speaker, I think the hon. Gentleman has exercised a wise discretion in not putting the third of the Questions of which he has given Notice. I can only express my regret that he should not have thought of the objections to such a Question before he put it on the Paper. I have risen to answer the Question—or, rather, to take notice of it—instead of my hon. Friend the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, because it is one of a class to which I think the attention of the House may well be directed. The practice of putting Questions to Ministers in this House is one of very great public utility, and it is one which I am sure the House is always desirous to encourage within reasonable limits. If Questions are put for the purpose of eliciting information, the Government will always be found ready to give such frank and full, and, I hope, courteous, answers as they are able to do. But I must say that Questions of this character, of which we have had more than one example in the present Session, are such as may lead to very great inconvenience. They are made, not the vehicles for asking for information, but for conveying in an indirect form attacks or imputations on the Government which it would be far better should be made in direct debate or discussion. With regard to this particular Question, I do not know precisely the meaning of the phraseology of the hon. Gentleman, "whether a communication from the Turkish Government, stating certain alleged reforms, which was telegraphed on the 9th instant, has reached Her Majesty's Government." He does not say by whom or to whom it was telegraphed. It is the case, no doubt, that a communication stating certain reforms or measures proposed to be taken by the Turkish Government has been communicated to my noble Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The hon. Gentleman asks whether the Article with regard to the amnesty refers to the perpetrators of the atrocities. I am informed that the impression upon the mind of my noble Friend is that it does not bear the meaning attributed to it by the hon. Gentleman.