VISCOUNT RAYNHAM: said, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether her Majesty's Government are aware of certain outrages that have recently been committed by Russian Troops on the Circassian Tribes of the Eastern Shores of the Black Sea, with which were combined an insult to Her Majesty; and whether Her Majesty's Government are prepared to support those clauses of the Treaty of Paris which provide for the free navigation of the Black Sea in the cases of certain vessels which are about to trade with Circassia? It was reported that some troops of the Czar, availing themselves of the absence of the guards of certain outposts on the Circassian territory, had fallen on defenceless persons, and killed a number of them, including old women and children.

This document is significant for two reasons. First, it places on the British parliamentary record a direct question to the Prime Minister (First Lord of the Treasury) concerning the killing of elderly women and children among the Circassian population by Russian troops. Second, the debate shows that as late as May 1863, one year before the Circassian Exile, the British Government did not recognize Russian sovereignty over Circassian territory and its coastline. Taken together, the debate stands as an official British record of Russian violence against Circassian civilians, and of the fact that Circassia was still not recognized as Russian territory at the time.