§ MR. ASHMEAD-BARTLETTasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If he will inquire by telegraph of the British agents in Northern Persia whether it is a fact, as stated by the Correspondent of the "Daily News," who is now a prisoner at Merv, that the Russians have not only occupied and annexed the whole of the Tekke Turcoman Country, including Askabad, but have also occupied Kuchan, in Persian Khorassan, a most important strategical position on the road to Meshed and Herat, and have extended their frontier along the Attrek Valley up to the Yegend, embracing Derghaea and Kelat, and passing close to Meshed; and, whether he will at the same time ask for and lay before this House exact information as to the extent of territory in that region now in the occupation of Russia, or alleged by the Russian authorities to be under their rule?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKEThe Foreign Office cannot communicate by telegraph with Meshed, so it is not possible to make the direct inquiry asked for; but the Agent at Meshed is in constant communication with Her Majesty's Minister at Teheran, through whom his Reports are received. Her 1009 Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires has already been instructed to send home a map showing the boundaries of the recently annexed territory in the Akhal country for the Library of the House of Commons.
§ MR. ASHMEAD-BARTLETTcomplained that he had been unable to obtain an exact statement on this subject from the hon. Baronet. He would repeat the latter part of the Question early in next week; and if the hon. Baronet would not telegraph for information on this important question he should consider it his duty to bring the matter before the notice of the House in the only way which was now possible for private Members.