§ MR. PEASEasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether it is the ease that Keamil Pasha, the late Governor General of Aleppo, whose dismissal from his post was demanded by Sir Henry A. Layard in March last, has been appointed by the Porte Musteshar or Under Secretary of the Interior and President of the Commission for the appointment of Public Functionaries; and, whether Her Majesty's Government are able to make any statement or lay further Papers upon the Table relative to the action of Her Majesty's Government in respect to this appointment?
§ MR. BOURKESir Henry Layard announced this appointment in a despatch dated November 9, which will be found at page 127, No. 121, of the Papers recently laid before Parliament (Turkey, No. 1, 1880)—
I learn upon good authority that this appointment has been forced upon Mahmoud Nedim Pasha, notwithstanding his strong objection to it. It is scarcely credible that a man who has boon recently proved guilty of treating the Christians of Zeitoun with great cruelty, and who is under the accusation of having received bribes, and of having forged or connived at the forgery of letters in order to misrepresent the conduct of one of Her Majesty's Consuls, should be named to a place of so much importance, which ought to be filled by a man of known integrity and of liberal views.The Porte is, doubtless, perfectly well aware of the impression that such an appointment would make in Europe; and, under those circumstances, it is perfectly unnecessary to make any representation to them on the subject.