§ MR. ARTHUR ARNOLDasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether Her Majesty's Government has been engaged in correspondence with the Government of the Sultan upon the alleged intention of the Porte to withdraw certain ecclesiastical privileges of the Greek subjects of the Porte; and, if so, whether he proposes to lay such Correspondence upon the Table of the House?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICESir, this matter has been brought to the notice of Her Majesty's Government by Her Majesty's Chargé d' Affaires at Constantinople and Her Majesty's Minister at Athens, as well as by the Representatives of Turkey and Greece in this country. Her Majesty's Charge d' Affaires at Constantinople has recommended the Porte not to act in such a manner as to promote irritation among the Greek subjects of the Sultan; but Her Majesty's Government do not consider that it is a question calling for their official intervention, at all events in its present stage, nor that any advantage would be gained by publishing the Correspondence.