THE MEDITERRANEAN—SECURITY OF COMMERCE.—QUESTION. (Hansard, 1 May 1877)

§ LORD WAVENEY

said, that in putting the Question of which he had given, Notice, it was not his intention to detain their Lordships at any great length. The object of his inquiry was that the public 143 might be informed at the earliest possible moment as to how matters stood in the Mediterranean. Remembering the serious injury inflicted on commerce by pirates in that sea during the Greek War of Independence, he was much afraid that the recurrence of a similar state of things was not far distant. He had given his Notice in consequence of the following statement, which appeared among the foreign correspondence of The Times on the 25th ult:— A band of pirates, headed by the notorious Ghiorgoula, and formed at Athens by his Lieutenant, Latzks, for the purpose of attacking different points in the Archipelago, has been captured in a creek at Rhodes. After a raid on Lindos, bad whether had forced them to take refuge there. The Turkish Gendarmerie Colonel surprised them in a cave, from which, being threatened with starvation, they made a sortie, killing the Orderly Officer, a Gendarme, and three civilians. On the death of the chief and his lieutenant, the remaining 13 surrendered. Seeing how well provided we were with Consuls and Vice Consuls, he presumed that the Foreign Office was kept well informed on such subjects, and he therefore begged to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether any reports had yet been received from Her Majesty's Consuls abroad of the existence and progress of piracy in the Mediterranean?

§ THE EARL OF DERBY

The only case of piracy in the Mediterranean which has come to the knowledge of the Foreign Office is the one to which the noble Lord has referred in putting his Question. The circumstances were precisely as they are stated in the correspondence quoted by the noble Lord — namely, that a piratical crew made a descent on Lindos, which they plundered, and carried off a considerable amount of property. The next day the Governor sent troops by land and also sent a ship, or ships, to cut the pirates off by sea. The pursuit was successful. The greater number of the band were captured, and their leader is said to have been shot. The despoiled property, or the greater portion of it was recovered and restored to the owners, and some of the band were sent to Rhodes to be tried. It would appear that the majority of the pirates were from Greece, and some few of them were from the Islands of the Archipelago. That is the only case of piracy that has come to our knowledge. No doubt the Consuls and Vice Consuls will feel it their duty to 144 report such occurrences to the Foreign Office should any others arise.