MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is able to state what foundation there is for the statement published in the Press, to the effect that Turkish functionaries, while on a tax collecting tour through Tripoli, found that the Arab citidal at Kassar-Bugardin, in Tripoli, near to the Frontiers of Tunis, had been occupied, and was then in occu- 1643 pation by French troops, and that the inhabitants of Ghadames and Ghat have been brought into a great state of alarm by this occupation of Turkish territory, and, fearing a further French invasion, have demanded of the Turkish Governor General the adoption of defensive measures to provide against any such invasion; and whether Her Majesty's Government are able to say, or if not now able to say whether they will ascertain, if the Turkish Government has made to the French Government any protest or remonstrance against the occupation by France of Turkish territory in Tripoli?
§ SIR E. GREYWe have no information as to the proceedings referred to. In 1890 the Porte formally reserved its rights over the hinterland of Tripoli, but we have no reason to believe that it has recently made any protest or remonstrance to the French Government.