HL Deb 14 February 1888 vol 322 cc367-8
THE EARL OF DUNRAVEN

My Lords, I wish to ask the noble Marquess at the head of the Government a Question of which I have given him private Notice, in connection with the lamentable death, under very suspicious circumstances, of Mr. M'Neill at Boulogne in December last. Your Lordships know the circumstances of the case, and I need not therefore further allude to them; but I saw it mentioned in the papers yesterday that practically speaking the further investigation into the cause of death has ceased, and I wish to ask the Prime Minister, Whether there has been any communication between the two Governments of France and England upon the subject, and whether there is any truth in that statement; and also, in view of the fact that there is a very grave suspicion that a murder was committed, whether Her Majesty's Government will be able to make any further representations to the French Government upon the subject?

THE PRIME MINISTER AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (The Marquess of SALISBURY)

My Lords, I have reason to doubt that it is true, as my noble Friend has stated, that investigation in this case has been given up. Our latest information is that the French Government has assured the British Ambassador that the inquiry is actively proceeding at Boulogne, under the direction of the Commissaire Centrale, and that a special Commissaire has been despatched by the Minister of the Interior. Of course I do not know the particulars of the investigation; nobody probably but the magistrate actually concerned can know them. No doubt it is within the knowledge of the noble Earl that investigations of this kind in France are conducted not in public, as with us, but, on the contrary, quite privately, and therefore it would be out of the power of anyone to say whether the investigation was actively proceeding or not. We have expressed to the French Government our great anxiety that every measure should be taken to discover the murderer, if murder there was, and I have not the smallest ground for believing that there will be the slightest lukewarmness on the part of the French Government in carrying out the investigation.