Note 1 — PREFACE.
Reading edition
“I am at a loss to know why the Reports of Consuls ceased to be furnished in or about the year 1881. Consuls are supposed to keep their eyes open and to report facts regarding the people among whom they live, and it is altogether a new idea that their Reports are to be regarded as confidential documents. If they are to be so, that is simply condemning the Consuls’ Reports to perpetual barrenness and absolute inutility. Why are not consular reports to be made, and being made, why are they not to be printed? If in this respect I am personally, or anyone associated with me, is open to censure, let the facts be brought out; but do not let a particular act at a particular time be confounded with the adoption of the principle of eternal silence about the horrors that prevail in Armenia.”—Speech by the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, in House of Commons, May 28, 1889.