§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKEasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether it is true that a Consular Officer has been sent from Salonica on a special mission to Epirus and Thessaly; whether he has had any communication with the insurgent chiefs; whether any Report which he may make on the state of affairs in those provinces will be laid upon the Table of the House; whether Mr. Sandwith, along with the Consuls of other Powers, has intervened in Crete, and arranged an armistice between the Insurgents and the Ottoman Forces; and, if so, whether the text of the armistice and the Report by Mr. Sandwith will be laid upon the Table; and, whether Her Majesty's Government possess any information as to the reported release of Mussulman malefactors from the prisons of Janina and Larissa for the purpose of organizing incursions by brigands into Greece?
§ MR. BOURKEIt is true that a Consular officer has been sent from Salonica to report upon the condition of the Provinces of Epirus and Thessaly. The mission, however, is not of a political character, but is only sent to obtain information. We have not heard whether Mr. Sandwith, the Consular officer referred to, has had any communication with the insurgent chiefs. His Report has not yet reached Her Majesty's Government, and until it has it is impossible to say whether it can be laid before Parliament. Mr. Sandwith was directed to offer his good offices between the authorities of the Porte and the insurgents. He has done so, and there is no doubt that, owing to his good offices, an arrangement has been come to between the insurgents and the officers of the Porte; but I have not heard whether any regular armistice has been concluded. We have not yet received his Report; but when it does come, no doubt it will be laid upon the Table with the rest of the Papers. We have heard from the Consul at Crete that the Turkish garrison and the Turkish governor have gone over to the insurgents, and we have also heard that there is no part of the interior of the Island of Crete that can now be said to be under the authority of the Porte. Her Majesty's Government 1956 have heard from the Greek Chargé d'Affaires that the malefactors referred to in the last Question of the hon. Baronet have been released. That report is confirmed by a Report of. the Consular officer in Greece; and Her Majesty's Ambassador at the Porte has been instructed to remonstrate with the Porte upon the subject.
§ MR. BAXTERasked, If it is true that a Provisional Government has been formed in Crete; and that, with the exception of two or three walled towns, the whole Island is in the hands of the insurgents?
§ MR. BOURKE,in reply, said, the Governmenthad heard a statement to that effect from a London source, and the report had been somewhat' confirmed on inquiry by our Consular officers in Crete. Her Majesty's Minister in Greeco had been instructed to inquire. and report.