§ EARL DE LA WARRbegged to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether his attention has been called to a communication addressed to The Pall Mall Gazette by Madame de Novikoff, purporting to give the views of a high Russian authority in regard to the Afghan boundary; and whether it is true, as stated in this communication, that the Afghans were instigated to occupy Penjdeh by members of Sir Peter Lumsden's Staff?
§ EARL GRANVILLEIt is not correct, and, indeed, could not be so. Sir Peter Lumsden arrived at Sarakhs on November 8. On the 9th, Colonel Alikhanoff called on Sir Peter Lumsden to complain of the advance of the Afghans to Sari Yazi, 35 miles north of Penjdeh. He then stated that the Russians had been nearly a year at Merv, and that during the whole of that period the Afghan outposts had been at Penjdeh. As a matter of fact, both the Sarikhs and the Salors settled in the Penjdeh Valley have acknowledged that they were on Afghan soil, and have paid a revenue to the Afghan Government.