§ COLONEL DENNY (Kilmarnock Burghs)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has had 764 any recent communication from Her Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople in regard to the claims of British subjects on account of the Armenian massacres of August, 1896; whether he has heard that the United States Minister has obtained from the Sultan a promise that the American claims would be paid, also that the Turkish Government proposes to pay the American claims in connection with and through certain American firms with whom they are in negotiation for naval contracts; and whether Her Majesty's Government will now influence the Sublime Porte so that the claims of British subjects may be settled without further loss of time.
§ *MR. BRODRICKWe have heard quite recently from Sir N. O'Conor On the subject. On the 23rd of May His Excellency again spoke to the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs very seriously and urged him to lose no time in informing the Sultan of his repeated representations. The answer to the second paragraph of the question is in the negative.