§ MR. DAVENPORTasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether he is aware that numbers of French Communist prisoners continue to be placed on board steamers bound for British Ports and then released, their passage money paid, and that they are landed here in a state of utter destitution; and, whether he can announce the result of his promised inquiry on this subject? Since he had given Notice of the Question, he had been credibly informed that such prisoners continued to arrive in this country in considerable numbers.
§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDSir, inquiries have been made of our Consuls at Havre, Brest, Cherbourg, Boulogne, Calais, and Dieppe as to the reports of French Communist prisoners being placed on board steamers bound for British ports and being landed in a state of destitution in this country; the replies are to the effect that at Havre, Brest, Cherbourg, and Boulogne no knowledge of such events is possessed by our Consuls, and they were denied by the municipal authorities; at Calais nine prisoners, whose term of imprisonment for civil offences had expired, had been sent over to Dover, but the Consul states that these persons were either English or Americans. At Dieppe the Consul reports that 20 Communist prisoners, consisting of Italians, Belgians, and French, had been forcibly embarked at that port for England with their passage paid; on receipt of this official information Lord Lyons has been instructed to make a friendly remonstrance with the French Government on this subject.