HC Deb 06 April 1876 vol 228 cc1321-2
MR. GOLDSMID

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the following statement, published in the daily papers of Saturday last, is correct— Cadiz.—March 30.—The Government demands the payment of the war tax and arrears, as well as a quota of the forced loan, by British subjects. French and Germans are exempt; and, if it is correct, to ask what action the British Government proposes to take in the matter?

MR. BOURKE

It is true that the payment of these taxes has been demanded from British subjects. They have also been demanded from the citizens of the United States and of some other countries. The French and Germans, and Belgians, and some others have been exempt under Treaties with those countries, and Her Majesty's Government are in correspondence with the Spanish Government as to the right of British subjects to be similarly exempted under the Treaties between Great Britain and Spain. According to the last accounts the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs had undertaken to give the question his particular attention, and in the meanwhile Her Majesty's Minister had advised British subjects to pay under protest.