Extract from ‘Hansard’ (The official report of all Parliamentary debates) © UK Parliament
TREATY OF BERLIN—ARTICLE XXIII.—THE ISLAND OF CHIOS.
MR. RALLI [Member of Parliament for Wallingford] asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the attention of Her Majesty’s Government has been directed to the recent acts of the Ottoman Government in the Island of Chios (Scio), such as the imposition of double taxation since the earthquake of 1881, instead of a remission thereof as promised at the time; the substitution of the Turkish for the Greek language in the Law Courts; and the suppression of all the printing presses in the Island; and, whether Her Majesty’s Government will impress on the Porte the necessity of restoring the autonomous Government of Scio as existing until 1866, and still in force in the neighbouring Island of Samos, or at least the advisability of appointing a Christian as Governor of the Island, which is computed to contain 50,000 Christian and about 1,500 Turkish inhabitants?
LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICE [Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs] Sir, the attention of Her Majesty’s Government has been drawn to the condition of affairs in the Island of Scio, and they have been in communication with Lord Dufferin and Mr. Wyndham on the subject. The European Commission of Reforms, by the Collective Declaration of August 22, 1880, resolved that all the Islands of the Archipelago were entitled to the benefit of the scheme of reforms drawn up by them under Article XXIII. of the Treaty of Berlin.