MR. STEYENSON (Suffolk, Eye)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is able to confirm the information that the Russian Government has issued an administrative order prohibiting the permanent settlement in Russian territory of the Armenian families which were driven from their homes in the eastern provinces of Asiatic Turkey by Kurdish and Circassian brigands and by Ottoman irregular troops during the period from 1894 to 1897: whether, in consequence of that order, several thousands of Armenian refugees have been or will be compelled to leave the districts of Kars, Erivan, Tiflis, Ardahan, and Batoum; and whether Her Majesty's Government will use its friendly offices with the Government of the Tsar with a view to inducing His Imperial Majesty to permit the widows and orphans who have sought a refuge in the towns and villages of Trans-Caucasia to remain in their present domicile?
§ MR. BRODRICKIn June last information was received at the Foreign Office that the Russian Government had published early in May a proclamation to the effect that all immigrants of Armenian extraction and Turkish nationality residing in the Governments of Baku, Kutais, Tiflis and Erivan, and in the Province of Kars were to quit the country within a year. It is believed that some thousands of persons were affected, but the matter is one for discussion between the Russian and Turkish Governments, and Her Majesty's Government could not properly interfere in it unless requested by one or the other of the parties.