§ MR. C. J. MONK (Gloucester)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he is in a position to state whether there is any foundation for the report contained in the Daily News of 10th August that 1,000 armed Mussulmans butchered 30 unarmed Christians and wounded eight others within the precincts of the monastery of St. John, at Anapolis Pediada, near Heracleion; that they then desecrated and plundered the churches of St. John, Panagia, Prophet Elias, Archangelos, and Metamorphosis, and burnt the priest, Jeremiah, alive over a fire made of the sacred pictures, after cutting off his ears and nose; and that among the slaughtered were three priests, three women, and three small children; and, 492 whether the Great Powers are now agreed as to the means to be adopted for the prevention of further massacres of the Christian subjects of the Porte in the island of Crete?
§ MR. T. M. HEALY (Louth, N.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has he any information as to the statement of the Athens correspondent of the Daily News yesterday relative to the roasting of a priest in Crete by Turkish soldiers on a fire made from pictures pillaged from churches?
MR. CURZONA telegram has been received from Her Majesty's Consul in Crete reporting an attack by armed Mussulmans on the monastery referred to, and stating that 29 men, women and children and three monks had been killed and eight other Christians wounded. The desecration and burning of the monastery and four churches is also reported, as well as the plunder of cattle and sheep. A report has also reached Constantinople from the Greek Consul in Crete, mentioning the burning of a priest, but this statement has not so far been confirmed by any telegram from the British Consul. The representatives of the Great Powers at Constantinople are in almost daily communication with the Porte with the view to the suppression of these disturbances and the restoration of order in the island.