✨ Foreign Policy Declaration
MALY
E
NOHEIR
PENSE
DROIT
NEW ZEALAND
GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.
Published by Authority.
All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official
Signature thereunto annexed, are to be considered as Official Communications made
to those Persons to whom they may relate, and are to be obeyed accordingly.
By His Excellency's Command,
ANDREW SINCLAIR, Colonial Secretary.
VOL. II.] AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, JULY 11, 1854. [No. 16
Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland,
10th July, 1854.
HIS Excellency the Officer Administering
the Government directs the publication
of the following "Declarations," received
from Her Majesty's Secretary of State for
the Colonies, for general information.
By His Excellency's command,
ANDREW SINCLAIR,
Colonial Secretary.
DECLARATION.
WITH with deep regret that Her Majesty
announces the failure of Her anxious and
protracted endeavours to preserve for Her
People and for Europe the blessings of peace.
The unprovoked aggression of the Em-
peror of Russia against the Sublime Porte
has been persisted in with such disregard of
consequences, that after the rejection by the
Emperor of Russia of terms which the Em-
peror of Austria, the Emperor of the French,
and King Prussia, as well as Her
Majesty, considered just and equitable, Her
Majesty is compelled by a sense of duty that
is due to the honour of Her Crown, to
the interests of Her People, and to the inde-
pendence of the States of Europe, to come
forward in defence of an Ally whose territory
is invaded, and whose dignity and indepen-
dence are assailed.
Her Majesty, in justification of the course
she is about to pursue, refers to the
transactions in which Her Majesty has been
engaged.
The Emperor of Russia had some cause
of complaint against the Sultan with refer-
ence to the settlement, which His Highness
had sanctioned, of the conflicting claims of
the Greek and Latin Churches to a portion
of the Holy Places of Jerusalem and its
neighbourhood. To the complaint of the
Emperor of Russia on this head, justice was
done; and Her Majesty's Ambassador at
Constantinople had the satisfaction of pro-
moting an arrangement to which no excep-
tion was taken by the Russian Government.
But while the Russian Government re-
peatedly assured the Government of Her
Majesty that the Mission of Prince Menchi-
koff to Constantinople was exclusively di-
rected to the settlement of the question of the
Holy Places at Jerusalem, Prince Menchi-
koff himself pressed upon the Porte other
demands of a far more serious and important
character, the nature of which he in the first
instance endeavoured, as far as possible, to
conceal from Her Majesty's Ambassador.
And these demands, thus studiously con-
cealed, affected not the privileges of the
Greek Church at Jerusalem, but the position
of many millions of Turkish subjects in
their relations to their Sovereign the Sultan.
These demands were rejected by the spon-
taneous decision of the Sublime Porte.
Two assurances had been given to Her
Majesty: one, that the Mission of Prince
Menchikoff only regarded the Holy Places;
the other, that his Mission would be of a con-
ciliatory character.
In both respects Her Majesty's just expec-
tations were disappointed.
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NZ Gazette 1854, No 16
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🌏 Publication of Her Majesty's Declaration Regarding Hostilities with Russia
🌏 External Affairs & Territories10 July 1854
War, Russia, Sublime Porte, Diplomacy, Holy Places, Declaration
- ANDREW SINCLAIR, Colonial Secretary