THE MARQUESS OF CLANRICARDE,seeing his noble Friend the Secretary for Foreign Affairs in his place, had a question to put respecting a matter which had appeared in the public papers, namely, the intended withdrawal of our troops from the kingdom of Greece, and an arrangement said to have been made with the Government of that country with respect to the debts and the management of its finances. He wished to know if the Government would lay upon the table the correspondence on the subject, so as to inform the public on what was done with regard to it? The Government was justified in withdrawing the troops, as the troops had only been sent for the purpose of enforcing the neutrality of Greece; but the two transactions appeared to have been mixed up together. No doubt we ought to have some control over the finances of that country, as it was our debtor, and we ought to take care of our debts; yet if such an arrangement was carried too far, it would involve us in difficulties.
§ THE EARL OF CLARENDONsaid, he 511 was glad to have an opportunity of answering the question put to him by his noble Friend. Their Lordships were aware that the troops were sent to Greece in consequence of the spirit of hostility which had manifested itself in that country towards the Western Powers, and when a successful attempt had been made to incite insurrection in the neighbouring provinces of Turkey. Upon these occurrences taking place it was agreed by Her Majesty's Government and the Government of France to send a small force to the Piræus in order to check proceedings of which we had so much reason to complain, and which acted, of course, as a powerful diversion in favour of Russia, by engaging the attention and arms of Turkey in the restoration of order within her own territories. That measure was quite successful. The troops never have moved from the Piræus, and, the war being over, they would be withdrawn. But in the course of the last autumn the Greek Government laid before the three protecting Powers a statement of the revenue and expenditure of Greece, offering to pay a small annual instalment of the interest on the loan guaranteed by those three Powers, and which interest has, in point of fact, been exclusively paid by them ever since the loan was made. The Greek Government, however, at the same time suggested that the protecting Powers might prefer, instead of receiving this small instalment of interest, to allow it to be applied to the internal improvement and the development of the resources of the country. Her Majesty's Government, however, could not agree to that proposal; first, because it was by no means clear that by a better administration the revenues of the country might not be increased; and, secondly, because, although the latter might be profitably applied to developing the internal resources of Greece, Her Majesty's Government could not sanction the application in the way proposed of money which belonged to the treasury of England. But, as the Greek Government challenged inquiry respecting the accuracy of the financial statement transmitted by them, Her Majesty's Government proposed that a Commission, consisting of the Ministers of the three protecting Powers at Athens, should inquire into the financial condition of Greece. The statement was laid before Her Majesty's Government as creditors, and as creditors they proposed to inquire into the accuracy of it. The proposal was made to the Rus- 512 sian Government, who concurred in it, and expressed their wish to take part in the Commission. Some little delay had arisen in respect to the attributes of the Commission, and its duration; but the Commission itself had been accepted in the most frank and cordial manner by the Greek Government. He had also to say that this proposal had been made in a perfectly friendly spirit to the Greek Government, and with no intention whatever of interfering in the internal affairs of their kingdom, or that the Commission should last beyond the time for which it was established. He (the Earl of Clarendon) believed that the protecting Powers were about to render essential service to Greece by the advice and assistance which the Commissioners would be able to render to her Government, and it was expected that the Greek Government might in this way have it in their power to effect certain administrative and financial reforms, which single-handed, they might possibly not be able to achieve. He believed the Commission would be established in a few days, and he hoped it would tend eventually to put an end to the contests for influence which had so often taken place between foreign Powers—contests which did no service to the Powers engaged, and which only distracted and wounded the public feeling of the country which was so unfortunate as to be the subject of them. He must say that the discretion and judgment of the English and French Ministers had done much towards carrying out the policy of their Governments in this respect, and he hoped that English and French parties at Athens no longer existed. The papers on this subject consisted chiefly of the correspondence with the French and Russian Governments respecting the Commission; and as that Commission was not yet absolutely established, it would, he thought, be premature to place them on their Lordships' table.