HC Deb 14 September 1886 vol 309 cc341-2
SIR HENRY TYLER (Great Yarmouth)

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the Emperor or Government of Russia have, in compelling Prince Alexander to abdicate the Throne of Bulgaria, which he occupied under the joint authority of the Great Powers of Europe, claimed to act under any right or title, by Treaty or otherwise; and, when Her Majesty's Government will be prepared to lay before Parliament the communications that have passed in reference to that abdication, so as to show how far the other Powers to the Treaty of Berlin have acquiesced in or protested against the course adopted by Russia, apparently in opposition to the wishes of the people of Bulgaria?

MR. DILLON

asked whether the Question, which was, as he contended, couched in very offensive language towards a friendly Foreign Power, and which contained an expression of opinion on the action of that Power, was strictly in Order?

MR. SPEAKER

The Question only refers to the fact whether certain communications passed between the Powers; and whether they acquiesced in, or dissented from, the course adopted by one of the Powers.

MR. DILLON

The Question expresses an opinion that the course taken by Russia is in opposition to the feelings and the wishes of the people of Bulgaria.

MR. SPEAKER

The word "apparently" occurs before the words "in opposition to," and the Question is in Order.

THE UNDER SECRETARY (Sir JAMES FERGUSSON) (Manchester, N.E.)

Her Majesty's Government have no official information that would justify them in stating that the Emperor or Government of Russia have compelled Prince Alexander of Battenberg to abdicate the Throne of Bulgaria. They cannot, therefore, make the assumption on which the hon. Member's Question rests. Prince Alexander was seized and carried out of the country by an act of mutiny and treachery on the part of a portion of his Army. He returned to Bulgaria, and thereafter abdicated, for reasons which he stated in a public document. I am unable to undertake at any definite date to lay before the House the communications that have passed on this subject. I have already submitted to the House that in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government no good purpose, but probably the reverse, would be served thereby. We know that the Constitutional forms proper to the occasion are being followed by the Regency, and that all the different parties in Bulgaria appear to be determined to co-operate for the maintenance of peace.