§ MR. A. J. BALFOURasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign 1239 Affairs, Whether it was true that a merchant claiming to be a Native of Malta and a British subject had been arrested in Tunis?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEThe facts of this case, so far as I have yet ascertained them, are simply these. An Italian, who claimed to be a British subject and a Native of Malta, had been engaged the other day in a quarrel with French soldiers, and the offence having been committed in the French camp, the French military authorities claimed jurisdiction to the exclusion of any other local jurisdiction, and also of the Consular jurisdiction, under which the man would come, assuming him to be a British Maltese subject. The man has satisfied Consul General Reed that he is a British Maltese, and the question is being treated between the two Governments. It is a question of considerable legal difficulty, but not of much importance.