§ MR. SCHWANN (Manchester, N.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been drawn to the state- 763 ment in various Turkish journals, copied into the Daily News and Le Temps, that Kurdish chieftains have been summoned to Constantinople, and that the Porte has decided to form regiments of Kurds and Circassians; that these troops are to be named "Ertogrul;" whether Her Majesty's Government will use their utmost endeavours to prevent the formation of such regiments; and whether the formation of Kurdish regiments infringes the provisions of Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty, wherein it is stated that the Porte is to protect the Armenians against the Kurds and Circassians?
§ SIR J. FERGUSSONHer Majesty's Government are aware that a project to form regiments of Kurdish Militia or Yeomanry is under the consideration of the Porte. The experiment would be watched with some anxiety, but it may be, on the other hand, that the disciplining and organising the tribesmen might have a restraining effect upon their irregular propensities. If judiciously carried out it would not violate, but would fulfil, the 61st Article of the Treaty of Berlin; and there is at present no ground for the intervention of Her Majesty's Government.