§ Mr. DILLONasked whether telegrams have been received from Persia giving an account of the incident in which Dáráb Mirzá was concerned quite inconsistent with the official account; whether he will make special inquiries into the facts and communicate to the House the result of the inquiries; whether the Persian Government protested against the sending of sixty Cossacks to effect the arrest of Dáráb Mirzá; whether these Cossacks attacked a regular Persian force and killed Ali Khan, the Persian general; and whether such proceedings, on the part of 1115 the Russians, are compatible with the engagement of Russia and England to observe the integrity and independence of Persia?
Mr. McKINNON WOODThe telegrams referred to by the hon. Member have not been brought to my notice. The account of the incident which I gave on the 28th instant, in reply to questions asked by the hon. Member for East Leeds, was founded on a Report from His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires, who wrote with full knowledge of the facts. It therefore appears to me unnecessary to make the further inquiry suggested by the hon. Member. I am aware that the Persian Government opposed the despatch of Cossacks to arrest Dáráb Mirzá, but the reason of their attitude is not clear to me, in view of the fact that the mission of the Cossacks was to suppress a rebellion against the authority of the Persian Government themselves, which was successfully done. I have no information showing that an attack on Persian forces took place, resulting in the death of a Persian general, nor do I think that the suppression of a movement for the restoration of the late Shah, engineered by an officer of Russian nationality, can be said to affect the integrity and independence of Persia.