MR. T. M. HEALYI 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. T. M. HEALYsaid he had put a similar question on Monday. Had the hon. Member since asked for any information?
MR. T. M. HEALYsaid that was no answer to his question. Had the hon. Member since Monday asked for infor- 742 mation as to these abominable occurrences? ["Hear, hear."]
MR. T. M. HEALYsaid he should call attention to the matter on the Appropriation Bill.
In reply to Mr. PHILIP STANHOPE (Burnley),
§ *SIR ELLIS ASHMEAD-BARTLETT (Sheffield, Ecclesall)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether from 10,000 to 15,000 Mussulman inhabitants of Crete have been driven from their homes by Christian insurgents, their villages and plantations destroyed, and numbers of them killed and maltreated; whether thousands of these refugees are now collected in and around Heraklion; and what steps Her Majesty's Government are taking to obtain equal justice for the Mussulman as well as the Christian inhabitants of Crete?
*MR. CURZONIt appears, from the official reports which have been received from Crete, that large numbers of the Mussulman inhabitants in the district of Candia have, in consequence of the general state of panic and disorder, migrated from their villages into the town, where their presence has been the cause of serious disturbances. There is no confirmation of the, reported ill-treatment of the Mussulman fugitives and destruction of their property. Both in their representations to the Porto, and in their instructions to Her Majesty's Consul in Crete, it has throughout been the object of Her Majesty's Government to secure equal justice to both sections of the population in the island.
§ *SIR E. ASHMEAD-BARTLETTHave not Her Majesty's Government received reports from their representatives in Crete that large numbers of the Mussulman inhabitants have been driven from their homes, and a considerable number killed and maltreated?
*MR. CURZONsaid he had received reports in which mention was made of injuries to Mussulman inhabitants, but these injuries did not seem to have occurred to those who had left their homes in consequence of the prevailing disturbances. ["Hear, hear!"]
§ Mr. J. O'KELLY (Roscommon, N.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in view of the massacres committed in Crete, the Government will consider the desirability of recognising the Christian insurgents as belligerents?