THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONasked the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether he is able, or expects shortly to be able, to give the House any further information respecting the meeting of the Congress at Berlin?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERSir, Her Majesty's Government will be able to lay on the Table this evening some Correspondence on this subject, and it will, I hope, be in the hands of hon. Members to-morrow morning. Perhaps it would be convenient to the House that I should mention the principal points in that Correspondence. The House is already aware that some time ago—on the 13th of March—Lord Derby stated to Sir Henry Elliot that—
Her Majesty's Government must distinctly understand before they enter into the Congress that every Article in the Treaty between Russia and Turkey will be placed before the Congress, not necessarily for acceptance, but in order that it may be considered what Articles require acceptance or concurrence by the several Powers and what do not.That intimation, of course, was communicated to the other Courts also. There was some subsequent Correspondence, which led to the following letter from the Russian Ambassador to Lord Derby:— 121Prince Gortchakoff charges me to represent to you that the Treaty of Peace concluded between Russia and Turkey—the only one which exists, for we have no secret engagement—will be communicated to the Government of the Queen in its entirety and well before the assembling of the Congress. The Government of the Queen, in like manner as the other Great Powers, reserve to themselves at the Congress their full liberty of appreciation and action. This same liberty, which she does not dispute to the others, Russia claims for herself. Now, it would be to restrict her, if, alone among all the Powers, Russia contracted a preliminary engagement.That communication did not appear entirely clear to Her Majesty's Government, and a further communication was made to Count Schouvaloff by Lord Derby on the 21st of March. Lord Derby, in that despatch, repeated the statement which Her Majesty's Government had previously made, and desired to ask—Whether the Government of Russia are willing that the communication of the Treaty en entire to the various Powers shall be treated as a placing of the Treaty to the Congress in order that the whole Treaty in its relations to existing Treaties may be examined and considered by the Congress?To that the following answer was received yesterday:—I lost no time in communicating to Prince Gortchakoff the tenour of the letter which you did me the honour to address to me, dated the 21st of March. The Prince replies to me that the Imperial Cabinet deems it its duty to adhere to the declaration which I was ordered to make to the Government of the Queen, and which is stated in the letter which I had the honour to address to your Excellency dated the 19th of March. As different interpretations have been given to the 'liberty of appreciation and action' which Russia thinks it right to reserve to herself at the Congress, the Imperial Cabinet defines the meaning of the term in the following manner:—It leaves to the other Powers the liberty of raising such questions at the Congress as they might think it fit to discuss, and reserves to itself the liberty of accepting or not accepting the discussion of these questions.That, Sir, closes the Correspondence.