ADDRESS FOR PAPERS. (Hansard, 17 March 1881)

LORD STRATHEDEN AND CAMPBELL

, in rising to call attention to Correspondence on the Greek Frontier and to move an Address to the Crown for Copies of the remaining Despatches from the French Government on the differences between Greece and the Ottoman Empire, said: My Lords, the Notice I have given arises partly from some discussions which occurred in August last, when many of the House were naturally absent. It is two-fold, as it proposes to call attention to Correspondence on the Greek Frontier we possess, and to move for several Despatches of the French Government which are withheld from us. As regards the first portion of the Notice, the noble Earl the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs having intimated to me a great reluctance to discuss it while negotiations are proceeding, I shall not touch upon it. But, as regards the Despatches of the French Government, without detaining the House at length, their position may be stated. They have been collected from the French Official Book in the Mémorial Diplomatique of the 29th of January. Three of them have been presented to the Legislature, while 13 are absent. [The noble Lord gave the dates of those which had appeared, and those which he thought the House ought to require the production of.] My Lords, the tendency of 1224 these Despatches as a whole is to give the true interpretation of the Conference at Berlin. They are an elaborate reply to current fallacies by which the peace of Europe is endangered. They point out, with a lucidity which ought to be acknowledged, and greater eloquence than seems to be required in compositions of the kind, or than is generally found in them, that the Conference was only framed for mediating purposes; that mediation and arbitration are not to be confounded with each other; that mediation implies free choice in the two States which differ as to whether they will act upon the counsel of the mediator. In exact proportion as the European body is familiarized with the arguments of M. St. Hilaire, war between Greece and the Porte is hindered and discouraged. The inconveniences of such a war will hardly be disputed by your Lordships. It must throw back Greece financially at least for a considerable period. It must occasion loss of treasure to the other and, perhaps, the more impoverished belligerent. It would be calculated to inflame the latent elements of discord between the Danube and the Bosphorus. It might re-establish in European Turkey the hostile occupation, which did not willingly or hastily abandon it. Now, there is not any technical objection to the complete production of these documents. The principle is granted. You may give all, if you give any. They cannot possibly impede negotiations. On the contrary, their influence in tranquillizing Greece must be augmented by the echo they receive and by the number of political societies through which they vibrate to its councils. Nor ought the course which I am taking to be embarrassing to the Government, since they may accede without debate, if they think proper, to the Motion. As far as I can judge, after devoting much attention to the whole of the French Despatches, there is nothing to place the three to which we are confined in a different and a safer category from those which I now move for.

§ EARL GRANVILLE

thanked the noble Lord for having acceded to his suggestion as to the general question, and for 1225 the careful manner in which he had introduced his Motion. It would be impossible for him at this moment to enter into the policy of the Government, or into the subject on which the noble Lord had so very lightly touched. He would have been very happy to give the noble Lord what he asked for were it in his power to do so; but Her Majesty's Government had not received any additional despatches beyond those which had already been published. It was quite true that the French Government had sent two Circulars to their Repretatives here and elsewhere which were published in their Yellow Book; but Her Majesty's Government had not received those Circulars. The noble Lord would, however, find that the substance of them was included in two Despatches to be found in the Blue Book—one a despatch from Lord Lyons at Paris, and the other a despatch from Mr. Corbett at Athens.