MR. HERBERT ROBERTSI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1) whether the Government have any information as to the reported barbarous conduct of the Turkish troops in Thessaly; (2) whether three Greek notables of Larissa have been sent as prisoners by order of the Porte to a 410 fortress in the Dardanelles because they refused to sign a petition, in favour of the retention of Thessaly as a Turkish province; whether he has any confirmation of the report as to the discovery of the headless bodies of Greek peasants, murdered near Larissa as they were gathering their harvest; and (3) whether these and other alleged breaches of the armistice have been brought to the notice of the Turkish Government and the Ambassadors at Constantinople?
MR. CURZONMr. Eliot, of Her Majesty's Embassy at Constantinople, who has lately visited the scene of war in Thessaly, reported to Her Majesty's Ambassador that the general conclusion at which he had arrived with regard to the districts of Larissa and Volo was that in all places where the natives remained the Turks had carefully preserved their lives and property, and were doing their best by equitable administration to encourage the return of fugitives. But where the population had taken flight, as they had done in most places, pillage, probably the work of irregulars, had occurred very soon after their departure, and only the walls of houses were left standing. Her Majesty's Government have no confirmation of the incidents mentioned in paragraphs two and three of the Question.