MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will lay upon the Table of the House correspondence relating to the massacre and persecution of Armenians, which have taken place subsequent to the events described in the last published Reports of Vice Consul Fitzmaurice; whether he can state if the recommendations of Vice Consul Fitzmaurice, arising out of the Biredjik Commission, have been fully carried out: and, whether, in view of the terrible destitution of the Armenians in the disturbed districts, he can give the House any reassuring information as to the steps which are being taken to prevent further outbreaks and to improve the position of the sufferers?
MR. CURZONI have already informed the House that in due course further Papers will be laid. Orders have been sent by the Porte to the Turkish Commission at Biredjik that all whodesire torevert to Christianity should be allowed to do so, and that the security of their property, honour, and lives should be guaranteed. Mr. Fitzmaurice has reported that a number of Armenian households have already taken advantage of this permission, and that he expected the return of other Armenians who had fled, and the speedy reversion to Christianity of 1048 the neighbouring villages. The Armenian Church, which had been turned into a mosque, had been restored; priests had been brought back and, as recommended by him, a battalion of regulars was on its way to Biredjik from Aleppo to replace the reserves. Her Majesty's Embassy do not cease to bring to the notice of the Porte any special information that reaches them from localities where distress exists, or where further outbreaks may be apprehended, and they have reason to believe that these representations are not without effect.