 On 27 March 1842, Sir Hugh Rose wrote to Lord Aberdeen that "Bishop Tubia, in January, on an alarm of his arrest by the Turks, requested an asylum in my house, should it prove to be correct".Further proof of Tobia Aoun's role as diplomatic representative of the Maronite nation is attested by Sir Hugh Rose in a letter to Lord Aberdeen dated 7 June 1844 in which Rose states that Aoun is "the agent of the Patriarch and the real agent of the Maronite people, recognized as such by his Patriarch and the Turkish authorities in the important matters of the Government of the Mountain and the indemnities".In working towards the creation of a viable government for Mount Lebanon, Bishop Tobia declared to the Ottoman authorities on 20 March 1844 that the Christian deputies he represented would never "accept the Druze government, that they would rather that their heads should be cut off than accept that Government".