§ MR. F. S. STEVENSON (Suffolk, Rye)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government are able to state the result of the representations which have been made with regard to various prisoners sentenced to various terms of imprisonment and exile in May last at Angora; and whether those representations have resulted in the release of any Christian political prisoners from the prisons of St. Jean d'Acre, Aleppo, Konieh, Cherum, and Cesarea, and the fortresses in Rhodes, Tripoli, in Barbary and Arabia, since the rescue of Professors Thoumaian and Kayayan?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOE FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir E. GREY,) Northumberland, BerwickAs my hon. Friend is aware, several of the prisoners sentenced in May last obtained a mitigation of their sentences in July. Other cases have lately been brought to the notice of the Grand Vizier, who promised that they should be carefully considered. A few of these have been released or acquitted, 1681 but, as I informed my hon. Friend in August, Her Majesty's Government could not interfere on behalf of the prisoners at the places he mentions without having strong evidence of their innocence.
§ MR. W. JOHNSTON (Belfast, S.)Is the hon. Baronet aware that there are 2,000 Christian prisoners in Turkish prisons?
§ SIR E. GREYI cannot give the exact number; but whatever they may be, it is impossible for Her Majesty's Government to interfere without having strong evidence of their innocence.