§ THE EARL OF MALMESBURYIt may be in the recollection of your Lordships that before we separated for the Easter holidays, when the noble Earl the Secretary for Foreign Affairs had gone to Paris, I gave notice of my intention to submit a Motion on the subject of the surrender of Kars. I regret that the inevitable absence of the noble Earl has hitherto prevented me from redeeming that promise, for I feel that the subject is of such importance that it ought to have been submitted to your Lordships' consideration as soon as possible after the event. But I hope that you will not, because of the time that has elapsed, be forgetful of the great interest that attaches to the event to which I allude, as well on its own account as with regard to what has followed. I could have wished that the question had fallen into the hands of some one better qualified than myself to present it to your notice in a lucid and intelligible manner, and to demonstrate its consequences; but since this is not the case, I must beg of your Lordships to make yourselves familiar with the subject, by casting a glance over the book that contains the papers relating to the 1384 operations in Asia Minor. And I make the request with the less reluctance, because the volume in question contains matter of the most romantic interest, such as is seldom possessed by a book of that colour. Notwithstanding the interval that has elapsed, I do not believe that any of your Lordships will be of opinion that an event so important as the surrender of a great fortress and a gallant army can be passed over in silence by this House. Rejoicing on this, and on many accounts, to see the Foreign Secretary in his place, I beg to lay upon the table a copy of the Resolution I mean to submit for your Lordships' consideration on Friday next—
That while this House feels it to be a duty to express its admiration of the gallantry of the Turkish garrison, and of the self-relying courage of Major General Sir W. Williams and the British officers at the siege of Kars, it feels it equally a duty to declare its conviction that the surrender of that fortress and of the army which defended it, disasters which endangered the safety of Asiatic Turkey and affected our influence in the negotiations for peace, are in a great degree owing to the want of foresight and energy in Her Majesty's Government.