§ MR. F. S. STEVENSON (Suffolk, Eye)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government will use its good offices with the Sultan with a view to the release and pardon of the Armenian political prisoners now detained within the fortresses of St. Jean d'Acre, Koniah, Tripoli in Barbary, Aleppo, Angora, and elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire?
§ *SIR E. GREYI am glad to be able to state that we have received information from Her Majesty's Ambassador that the Sultan has granted a general amnesty to the Armenians, who in various Provinces of Asia Minor have been suspected of being concerned in the posting of seditious placards; the amnesty has been extended to 500 persons, a certain number of whom were in confinement previous to the late arrests. It is stated that about 50 persons will remain to be tried. The Armenians referred to appear to be those imprisoned in the Provinces of Sivas and Angora. We have no information as to any being detained at St. Jean d'Acre, Tripoli, or Koniah.