§ *THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEMy Lords, I rise to ask His Majesty's Government a Question of which I have 18 given them private notice. We on this side of the House desire to know whether they are in a position to afford us any information not already in our possession with regard to the situation in the Balkan Peninsula. I make no apology for asking that Question. The events which have followed one another with ominous rapidity during the last few days have created a feeling of profound anxiety throughout Europe, and, I think I may add, a feeling of the utmost dismay in this country—this country in which one Government after another has spared no efforts to avoid the crisis which has apparently been precipitated by the conduct of some of the European Powers.
We shall be glad to know whether His Majesty's Government can tell us anything as to the facts of the case, and as to their own attitude with regard to the situation. I couple that Question with this reservation. Nothing is further from my thoughts than to press Ministers for any information which they think it is contrary to the public interest to give at the present moment. We have followed with attention the statements I lately made by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and by the Prime Minister upon these subjects, and I may be permitted to say that in my humble opinion nothing could have been more dignified in tone or more appropriate in substance than the statement made by Sir Edward Grey last week. If when I sit down my noble friend, who will, I suppose, follow me, tells me that he has nothing to add to Sir Edward Grey's statement I shall make no complaint whatever; and I can assure noble Lords opposite, speaking, I am sure, for those who sit round me, that our one desire is to strengthen the hands of His Majesty's Government and to assist them in accomplishing the task to which we understand from the Prime Minister they have set themselves—the two-fold task of maintaining the public law of Europe and preventing the disturbance of the peace of the world.
THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Lord FITZMAURICE)My Lords, nobody, I am certain, on whichever side of the House he sits or whatever his opinions upon any issue of foreign policy may be, could 19 possibly complain for one moment of my noble friend having asked this question directly your Lordships' House reassembled. This House has always been the scene of great debates on foreign policy, and it is quite natural that on this occasion a Question should be asked in regard to the grave issues which have recently arisen in the East of Europe.
In regard to the facts of the case, I do not think that I have anything to add to what has already been publicly stated in what are called the ordinary sources of information. The events to which my noble friend has alluded have not been done in secret; they have been announced on the house-tops, and they are public property. But there is, of course, the far graver and more difficult question as to what the course of European diplomacy is to be, and, more particularly, the question which occupies your Lords-ships' attention—what the course of the diplomacy of this country is to be. I have to thank my noble friend for the language in which he has spoken of the statement made by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at Wooler in the course of last week. I am glad that he, speaking with his high authority, has endorsed the approval which has been given already by the general public, both to the tone and to the substance of Sir Edward Grey's speech, and it is an encouragement to His Majesty's Government to think that in this matter, grave and troublesome as it is, they will have behind them not merely the voice of their own Party, but, they believe, the confidence of the united nation.
As my right hon. friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs stated in that speech, and as the Prime Minister, also, I think, on the same day, publicly stated, it is impossible for this country, in the interest of the value of treaties, to recognise an alteration of them made by any individual State without the consent of the other parties. That principle, as your Lordships know, was laid down in a European document of the highest importance in 1871 at the time of the denunciation of the clauses of the Black Sea Treaty by Russia, when a conference assembled in London, and when, on the proposal of Lord Granville, before any alteration was consented to in the substance 20 of the Treaty of Paris of 1856, all the high contracting Powers united in the declaration the text of which, is, I think, by this time perfectly well known to your Lordships, because it has been reprinted in nearly every newspaper in the United Kingdom.
We hold, my Lords, to the principle laid down in that historic document. We regard the events which have recently taken place in the Near East as necessitating consideration by the Powers with a view of arriving at a settlement which shall show due regard to the interests of Turkey, or of any other State which may have been prejudiced by recent changes, but we cannot admit the right of any individual State to be the judge in its own cause. We hope and trust that a solution will be found, and we shall use our influence to help to secure that it shall be both peaceful and equitable. No definite arrangement for a Conference has yet been come to, and the question of how a settlement can be attained, and what should be comprised in it, is at present forming the subject of discussion. Meanwhile, we hope that those who naturally feel aggrieved will not precipitate a crisis by hasty action and will continue to display the moderation and restraint which have hitherto distinguished them, relying upon the general desire which we believe exists to show fair consideration for their interests.
I may add this, that while on the one hand we recognise, and joyfully recognise, as the whole people of this country have, the great change in the direction of improved administration and reform in Turkey, we also do not forget how, for many years past, we have also asserted and vindicated the rights and liberties of what are known as the Christian populations of the Balkan Peninsula. Those two principles are not in any manner incompatible, and we fully believe that it will not be beyond the strength and the power and the skill of the diplomacy of Europe to secure the maintenance of those improved institutions which have come into being in Turkey, and at the same time to maintain the goodwill of the minor States of the Balkan Peninsula which are bound to us by the memories of the past thirty years. I hope that the House will con- 21 sider this short statement adequate under the circumstances of the moment, which, as my noble friend himself will be the first to recognise, require the most extreme circumspection and the greatest care on my part and on that of others who have to speak elsewhere in the language used if we are to obtain a satisfactory and a peaceful solution.