§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYwished to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs a Question of which he had given him private Notice, Whether it was true that in 1876 a communication was made by the Russian Government to the Government of this country in which it was proposed to divide Central Asia between Russia and England?
§ EARL GRANVILLEMy Lords, I see by the newspapers that the impression of the existence of such a document exists in seine quarters. The Press has a very natural and very laudable desire to obtain possession of all information; but in some instances it obtains information which is not correct, and which is given by persons who commit a breach of faith in furnishing it. With regard to this case, I do not know how the knowledge of a private Memorandum could be supplied to a newspaper; but as far as I am aware the statement is not true. My attention was called to the matter by seeing in a newspaper the statement referred to by my noble Friend. I have had a diligent search made, and I find, as regards the Foreign Office, that in the archives there is no record of such a communication. Neither is there any recollection of it among the permanent staff of the Office; and I believe the same statement will apply to the Department over which my noble Friend the Secretary of State for India presides. I give an answer to the Question which my noble Friend thus put; but, at the same time, I hope my doing so will not be regarded as a precedent that when any statement appears in a newspaper there should at once be a communication on the subject to Parliament, irrespective of any consideration as to whether it may be to the public advantage that such communication should be made.