THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURYdesired to ask the noble Earl the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs an important question with reference to the Armenian Christians lately tried at Angora and imprisoned. He was perpetually receiving letters and applications of all kinds from people with regard to those prisoners. Many of them were known to be highly respectable; some of them were clergy, and others were well-known school teachers. One had been educated in Europe, and generally a high opinion was entertained of many of them. They had been tried and sentenced to death, or to long periods of imprisonment. There was also another group of prisoners, among whom were two Archbishops, the Archbishops of Marash and of Zeitoun, and one Bishop, the Bishop of Moush—men of high character—who had been imprisoned for a long time, apparently, without trial. He wished to ask the noble Earl whether he could give the House any information which would allay the wide-felt anxiety respecting these prisoners who had been recently tried at Angora?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (The Earl of ROSEBERY)My Lords, I have great pleasure in answering the question of the most rev. Prelate. But if he finds his 782 correspondence largely increased by the recent trials at Angora, what must mine be? I have received an enormous number of inquiries showing the deep and well-founded solicitude on the part of the Christian inhabitants of this country on behalf of their fellow-Christians in Armenia. It has been repeatedly urged upon Her Majesty's Government, publicly and privately, that we should intervene in some way to obtain from the Sultan the unconditional release of those persons recently under accusation, without waiting for the formality of a trial. In my opinion, that was a course which it was absolutely impossible for Her Majesty's Government to adopt. You have no right, without knowing the evidence, to presume the absolute innocence of any person whatever. You have, in my opinion, no right, except under circumstances which I can hardly imagine, to interfere with the course of justice in another country. But I think you have this right—a right that we have, to some extent, founded on Treaty obligations—that when we are convinced that accused persons are not receiving their full measure of justice, and when we are convinced that the trial to which they have been subjected is not a real, au honest, and a genuine, but an illusory trial, it is then not merely opportune, but it is almost the duty of Her Majesty's Government to make some representation. We have therefore awaited the result of the trial at Angora in the full hope, and with some belief, that the trial would be fairly conducted; but I am bound to say that all the evidence which has come to us from our impartial officials in Asia Minor, in the neighbourhood of Angora, make it perfectly clear that the trial was not a fair trial, that the evidence of the prisoners did not receive sufficient weight, even where it was admitted, and that, therefore, it was open to Her Majesty's Government to make the strong representations they did in favour of the release of the accused persons, more especially of Messrs. Thoumaïan and Kayayan. The case of Messrs. Thoumaïan and Kayayan rests on a somewhat different footing from that of the other prisoners. In the first place, it is only with regard to these two prisoners that we have the detailed and specific information which we should wish to have about them all. In the next place, they are men of education and 783 learning, occupying positions of trust, and known to many in this country and Europe for their Evangelical exertions in the cause of religion. A special interest, therefore, has been felt in their case. I have the happiness to assure the most rev. Prelate that, since I entered this House to-day, I have received information that though the Court of Cassation has confirmed the sentences on Messrs. Thoumaïan and Kayayan, they will be immediately pardoned and sent out of the country. That, I think, is a considerable concession to have obtained under the circumstances. With regard to the 15 or 17 other prisoners, I can assure the most rev. Prelate that no exertion on the part of Her Majesty's Government will be wanting to see that they also receive the justice which is their due, and also if, as we believe, the evidence will show that their trial was as futile and illusory as that of Messrs. Thoumaïan and Kayayan, we shall make the same representations on their behalf. With regard to the case of the Bishop, to which reference has been made, we have no information. The Court of Cassation has confirmed the sentence on one of the Archbishops; but we have not heard definitely of the confirmation of the sentence on the other Archbishop. An official representation has been made at the Porte on behalf of these prisoners; but I am sorry to say it has not met with the same success as in the other cases, and perhaps we had not the same strong grounds for making them. However, what I have been able to state will, I hope, not be unsatisfactory.