§ BARON HENRY DE WORMSasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether he has received any confirmation from Her Majesty's Consuls in Russia of the outrages, which are stated by the Russian papers to have been committed during the present month, upon the Jews in that Country, and especially of the statement that at Balta 15,000 persons have been rendered homeless, forty seriously wounded, a large number of women and girls violated, and infants thrown into the river; whether he will lay upon the Table any Reports that may have been received from Her Majesty's Ambassador and the Consuls in Russia on the subject; whether he has seen a suggestion, made in a leading German paper, that it is the duty of Europe to send a collective note to St. Petersburg, demanding that Russia shall discharge the common obligations of justice and humanity towards the Jews; and, whether, inasmuch as the course hither to pursued by Her Majesty's Government with regard to the 1560 outrages in Russia has failed to bring about a cessation of these outrages, any steps will now be taken with a view to carrying out the suggestion referred to?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKESir, the British vice Consul at Odessa, who has visited Balta since the outbreak, reports that one Jew was killed and many badly wounded; that there were three alleged cases of violation of women, of which one was undoubtedly true; that no children were killed, and that the value of the property destroyed was about 1,000,000 roubles. At the time of his visit the authorities were energetically endeavouring to ascertain who were the guilty persons. The vice-Consul's full Report has not yet been received; but when it arrives there will be no objection to laying it before Parliament, with other despatches on the subject. I have not seen the article in a German paper referred to by the hon. Member, and no such suggestion has been made by Germany or any other Power.
BORN HENRY DE WORMSasked whether the reports published in the Russian papers did not give the number of persons rendered homeless at 15,000, and that a large number of women had been outraged?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKEI can only state I have not seen the Russian newspapers, and I can only go by the Vice Consul's preliminary Report. A fuller Report is coming home. The Vice Consul did not say that 40 persons were seriously wounded. His words were—"One killed, many badly wounded;" and then the exact words which I have quoted with reference to the outrage on women.