§ Mr. T. P. O'CONNOR (by Private Notice)asked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to a telegram from the Patriarch of Constantinople, dated 10th June, announcing that two massacres of Christian women and children have taken place at the Pontus; that a fortnight ago 1,300 women and 545 children from Samsoren were forcibly removed to the interior and were all massacred near Kayak; and whether he has any confirmation of these massacres from the British authorities on the spot?
Mr. HARMSWORTHThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. There are no British authorities in the districts concerned, but the Patriarch's statements regarding the renewed deportations of women and children are confirmed by several recent independent accounts. No confirmation has yet been received of the alleged recent massacre at Kayak, but His Majesty's Government are in possession of reliable evidence of the occurrence of two serious massacres at that spot last year, in one of which 1,300 Greeks are stated to have perished.
§ Mr. O'CONNORHas my hon. Friend any reason to know whether the accounts of these massacres have been conveyed to the Governments of our Allies, Italy and France?
§ Mr. A. WILLIAMSMay I ask whether these Greeks are being massacred because the Greeks were our Allies in the War, and have been used by us for our purposes in Asia Minor since?
§ Mr. O'CONNORMay I ask the Prime Minister to use his good offices with the French Prime Minister on his coming visit to London?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI am afraid I can hardly take the responsibility of adding to the burden of M. Poincaré when he comes here, but I am quite sure that the facts are as much in his mind as they are in the minds of His Majesty's Government.