HC Deb 04 April 1878 vol 239 c527
SIR H. DRUMMOND WOLFF

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether he can make any further statement respecting the "trustworthy person" alluded to by Sir Henry Elliot in his Despatch of March 23rd, as having communicated to him the declaration made by Prince Gortchakoff respecting the retrocession of Bessarabia?

MR. BOURKE

, in reply, said, he had told the House yesterday that the trustworthy person alluded to was the Roumanian agent at Vienna. The right ton. Gentleman the Member for Birmingham, and the right hon. Member for Greenwich, asked yesterday who was the intermediary—the agent at St. Petersburg or the agent at Vienna. As far as he (Mr. Bourke) could gather from the telegram, the transaction stood thus—Prince Gortchakoff made the statement to the Roumanian agent at St. Petersburg, who reported it to his Government, and the Roumanian Minister for Foreign Affairs reported it to the Roumanian agent at Vienna, who was the trustworthy person referred to. He trusted soon to be able to place a Despatch on the Table of the House which would place the matter in the clearest possible light.