§ MR. CHANNING (Northampton, E.)On behalf of the hon. Member for Flintshire, I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been drawn to a letter, which appeared in The Times of Saturday last, from one of the Armenian Christians condemned to death, in which he states that the four members of the Court were divided, one wholly refusing to sign the process, and that they were condemned by the majority of one vote; whether Her Majesty's Government will bring this fact under the consideration of the Turkish Government in the representations they are making on the subject; whether Mr. Newton's Report 137 has yet been received; and whether it is a fact that the evidence on which Professor Thoumaïan was condemned to death was the report of a sermon he preached in the Old Armenian Church recommending the union of all Christians in charity?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir E. GREY, Northumberland, Berwick)Her Majesty's Government have no information as to the division of opinion amongst the members of the Court. A further Report from Mr. Newton has been received. He gives it as his opinion that the evidence was quite insufficient to justify the sentence passed upon Mr. Thoumaïan and Mr. Kayayan. I am not in a position to confirm the statement in the last paragraph of the question; but the information already at our disposal gives every reason to hope that the Sultan will, when the evidence is laid before him, exercise the prerogative of mercy without delay.