§ MR. BAXTERasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If it is true that the Governments of Turkey and Russia have come to an agreement by which the former gives up the right of placing garrisons in the Balkans and of occupying with troops any places in Eastern Roumelia? He also wished to ask, Whether the Government can confirm the intelligence which was published in the "Standard" of to-day? The correspondent of the "Standard" says—
General Obrutscheff, the adjutant general of the Czar, stepped up to the altar, and, surrounded by the leading ecclesiastics, addressed the crowd who filled the nave and aisles. He had come to them, he said, as the representative 128 of the powerful Monarch who had liberated them from the yoke of the infidels, and would defend their independence against the whole world. The Czar wished, through him, to acquaint the Bulgarians with the fact that in deference to a letter addressed by him to the Turkish Sultan, the latter had abandoned the idea of sending any troops into East Roumelia. Henceforth, East Roumelia will be a free country, exempt from the oppression that might be exercised by the Turkish troops in the Balkans, at Ichtiman, or at Bourgas. To neither of these places would an Ottoman soldier approach again under the arrangements arrived at.
§ MR. BOURKESir, I am sorry to say that I have not seen The Standard, nor have I heard anything about the Notice which the right hon. Gentleman read to the House. In regard to the Question on the Paper, I have only to tell the right hon. Gentleman that we know of no such agreement as is described in his Question.