§ MR. HANBURYasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether it is the fact that, in spite of the strong protest of the English Chief Commissioner, a Turkish subject, inhabiting a Turkish province, has been sentenced by the Russian authorities in Eastern Roumelia to banishment from that province and exile in Siberia; whether he was so sentenced for having been the principal author of a Petition which was presented to the Commission by the English Chief Commissioner; and, whether Her Majesty's Government have made any representations to the Government of Russia on this subject; and, if so, with what result?
§ MR. BOURKESir, in reply to my hon. Friend, I do not think, from the documents which we have, that the facts are quite as they are presented in his Question; but, at the same time, I am not prepared to contradict his statement. It appears that for alleged falsification of a Petition, as mentioned by my hon. Friend, a man was sentenced to banishment to Siberia. In the opinion of Her Majesty's Government the Russian Commander-in-Chief was incompetent to pronounce that sentence, it being upon a Turkish subject in Turkey. Therefore, representations were made to Her Majesty's Ambassador at St. Petersburg, to the Russian Government, and that sentence has been commuted.
§ MR. HANBURYCommuted to what?
§ MR. BOURKEThat we have not heard.