§ MR. DIXON-HARTLAND(for Sir ROBERT FOWLER) (London)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether Her Majesty's Foreign Secretary has directed the attention of the British Embassy at Constantinople to certain orders lately issued to all the Governors General in the Ottoman Empire by the Turkish Minister of the Interior, Munir Pasha, in which orders the schools, churches, places of worship, and societies for benefiting the non-Moslem sects are referred to as "nefarious schemes", and the Governors General are directed, by means of many and scrutinizing investigations, to hinder their work; also that the same officials are directed not 244 to allow any such churches, places of worship, &c. to be built or repaired; and, whether, under such orders, about thirty schools of Protestants in Syria have been closed within the past few months?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. BRYCE) (Aberdeen, S.)A letter has been received from the Evangelical Alliance within the last few days, forwarding a communication from their Committee at Constantinople on the subject of two regulations recently issued. Although the description given of them by the Evangelical Alliance does not bear out the terms of the Question, the regulations, if that description be accurate, appear objectionable in tone and tendency, and in contravention of the repeated engagements entered into by the Porte for securing religious liberty to its subjects. Sir Edward Thornton has been instructed to inquire if any such regulations have been authoritatively issued, and if necessary to remonstrate. He will, of course, continue his efforts to obtain redress in any cases of religious intolerance which may come to his knowledge, as well as to endeavour to prevent the recurrence of such cases.