§ MR STEVENSONI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government are aware that the Porte has liquidated the claims of subjects of Austria-Hungary and the United States for damage done to their property in Turkey; and whether, in these circumstances, the Secretary of State will con- 69 sider the advisability of discontinuing verbal and written applications to the Porte, and will adopt other methods for securing payment, without further delay, of the claims of British merchants whose houses and shops were looted in 1896, and also of the pilgrims (British subjects) who were wounded and robbed by brigands in Turkish Arabia in the years 1892, 1893, 1895, 1896, and 1897.
§ * MR. BRODRICKThe answer to the first paragraph is in the negative. In reply to the second paragraph, I can assure the hon. Member that the claims mentioned have continued to occupy the serious attention of Her Majesty's Government, and are at the present moment the subject of negotiations with the Turkish Government.