MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, upon the appointment of Prince George of Greece as High Commissioner of the four Powers in Crete, a petition to Her Majesty the Queen was signed on 15th December 1898 by nearly 10,000 Cretan Mussulmans, praying that the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, the greatest Islamic State in the world, may deign to take under its aegis and direct protection the Mussulmans of Crete, as the Catholics of the Levant are under the protection of France, and that a sufficient garrison of British troops may remain permanently at Crete as the only guarantee which can be really efficacious for safety; whether, on this petition being presented by the Mussulman chiefs to Consul Biliotti, he refused to receive it, upon which the Mussulman chiefs stated that they would send it direct by post; whether he is aware if the petition in question has been received; and whether it has been referred to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; if so, whether any reply has been given thereto, and, if so, what reply?
§ MR. BRODRICKThe facts are as stated in the first two paragraphs. Her Majesty's Consul-General declined to receive the petition, as it is contrary to established usage for consular officers to receive deputations and petitions from the subjects of the Power on whose territory they reside. The petition was duly received, and referred to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, but under the circumstances it was not considered advisable to send a reply to the petitioners.