§ MR. ASHMEAD-BARTLETTasked, Whether it was not the fact that the Prime Minister informed the House, on Friday, the 13th of March, that the Russian Government had then entered into an agreement that their force should not advance, and that agreement dated back to the 2nd of March? He would further ask the right hon. Gentleman whether, in the face of that statement, it was possible for him to communicate to the House the substance of Sir Peter Lumsden's telegram on Friday last? He put this Question because statements gravely affecting the character and judgment of British officers with Sir Peter Lumsden had been put forth by the Russian organ in this country, and were still put forth from day to day.
§ [No reply.]
§ BARON HENRY DE WORMSasked, Whether it was a fact, as stated by the Special Correspondent of The Daily News at Krasnovodsk, that the Military Attaché of the British Embassy at St. Petersburg had been refused permission to visit the railway now being made from Krasnovodsk to Sarakhs; and whether any confirmation had been received by Her Majesty's Minister at Teheran of the following statement made by the same Correspondent with respect to the Russo-Persian Frontier:—
The Russian advance into Turkestan necessitated a more exact delimitation of the Persian frontier from the Caspian to Sarakhs. This work was gone over a year or two ago, and was supposed to have been definitely settled. The boundary was laid down, but now the Russians are taking it upon themselves to determine what had been determined, and to settle where the boundary had been fixed. I understand that one subject of dispute is connected with the Atrak River, near its junction with the Caspian. About forty miles from its mouth this 165 stream splits in two, and these branches flow separately into the Bay of Hasan Kuli. The Atrak was settled to be the boundary between Persian and Russian soil; but whether the Commissioners forgot to define which branch of that river was to be the frontier or not, I cannot say. Russia now claims the southern fork, and Persia claims the northern. The Russians, I am informed, have taken a very effective moans of settling the question; they have constructed, or are constructing, a dam where the northern branch separates, and thus it will cease to exist. The southern branch will thus become the River Atrak, and that has been defined as the frontier.
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEIt is quite true that this morning I did receive a letter inclosing a newspaper cutting identical with that which the hon. Gentleman has just read to the House; but owing, no doubt, to the great interest which the hon. Member has taken in foreign affairs, he had forgotten to sign his name to the letter. Under the circumstances, I must ask the hon. Gentleman to give Notice of the Question.
§ BARON HENRY DE WORMSI will put it on the Paper.