§ * LORD STANMOREasked the noble Marquess at the head of the Government a question of which he had given him private notice—namely, whether the Foreign Office had received any official intelligence with regard to the alleged massacre of 400 Christians quite recently in the neighbourhood of Kharput, or as to the events which were said to have recently taken place at Van, the accounts of which, to anyone who knew the state of matters there, were simply unintelligible. He asked the question because the official accounts given of these matters by the Turkish Government, stating, as they did, that no excesses whatever had been committed by the Turkish troops in any part of Asia Minor at any time, were manifestly unreliable; while the efforts of the Turkish officials to exclude information 112 by a system of strict censorship over telegrams and the Post Office had been only too successful, so that the official Reports of Her Majesty's Consular officers afforded the only accurate and impartial accounts available. As such written Reports could not be received and published for some time, perhaps his noble Friend would not object to state whether the Foreign Office had received any telegraphic intelligence on these subjects. He would make no comment on the question except this—that, though really unavoidable, the necessary delay in the publication of such Consular Reports was to be regretted; for, when they were published, the incidents to which they related were at least half-forgotten, and they were little read. He was afraid, from the inquiries he had made, that comparatively few of their Lordships had read even the Report of Consul Fitzmaurice of the way in which last Christmas was kept in Urfa. He could commend it to their Lordships as more full of horror and interest than any sensational novel, and those who had read it would hope with him that the recurrence of such acts might be speedily rendered impossible.
§ THE PRIME MINISTER (THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY)I only received my noble Friend's notice a very short time ago, and I have not had time to send to the Foreign Office in order to ascertain whether there are any Papers such as he would wish to have in existence. I have no doubt we should have some information with respect to this case, but whether its details are abundant or not may depend upon a variety of accidents. I will send for the Papers and examine them, and see if there is anything which seems to me ought to be laid specially upon the Table. I need not say there is not the slightest objection to lay documents of this kind on the Table if Parliament desires to see them. I cannot pass away, without a note of doubt, from my noble Friend's intimation that it is desirable that these horrors should be known as speedily as possible, in order that they may attract the greatest possible amount of attention. If there were only Christians in the world, I should admit that might be the case; but the effect, of course, of a great amount of attention here is an equal amount of 113 attention on the spot; and the effect of the Reports that are made, and the comments made upon these Reports in this country, is not, perhaps, all my noble Friend would desire when they get back to the Mahommedan population of Asia Minor. I do not think the expression of opinion here has any effect whatever in restraining the action of the wild population who are guilty of those horrors. Of course, what is said here may have the effect of increasing the intensity of feeling between Mussulman and Christian, and that intensity of feeling is precisely what, I think, every friend of humanity must wish to diminish as rapidly as he can. ["Hear, hear!"] I shall not refuse anything my noble Friend may wish to see, but I do not think it is desirable that we should lay too many papers of this kind on the Table, especially at a time when, unhappily, in other parts of the Turkish Empire there are causes enough of disturbance and every ground for increasing the apprehensions with which the relations of the two sections of population must be regarded.