MR. BENTINCKsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If any answer has yet been received from the Spanish Government to the proposal made to it by Her Majesty's Government in December last, that the case of the "Tornado" should be re-heard before a Special Tribunal, 743 and, if so, what are the terms of such answer; and, if he will lay upon the Table of the House all Communications received by Her Majesty's Government, subsequent to the 26th of February last, from Mr. Graham Dunlop and other persons respecting the case of the "Tornado" and her crew?
MR. OTWAYsaid, in reply, that the Foreign Office had received a despatch from Madrid, stating that the Spanish Government had declined to accede to our request that the case of the Tornado should be referred to a special tribunal. The reasons for this refusal were given very fully, and those reasons would be communicated to the Law Officers of the Crown. He had that day laid upon the table of the House all the communications that had passed on the subject subsequent to the 26th of February, with the exception of a despatch from Mr. Graham Dunlop, which, though it did refer to the case of the Tornado, contained the account of a conversation with a Spanish officer, now dead. It was, therefore, thought desirable not to lay that despatch on the table with the others.