§ MR. T. BRUCE (for the Earl of BECTIVE)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether his attention has been called to a statement in the public press, that M. Roustan directs not only the Foreign Office, of Tunis, but also most of the Government Departments, and that claims by the municipality and other bodies against Europeans are made by M. Roustan; whether he is aware that in one of the aforesaid capacities M. Roustan has adjudged to a French subject a portion of ground adjoining the English Church, and secured in perpetuity to the British Colony by a deed signed by the Bey and the Bishop of Gibraltar, a counterpart of which has been deposited in the archives of the British Consulate at Tunis; and, if he will communicate with Her Majesty's Agent and the Rev. E. Frankel on the subject, with a view to the protection of the British rights involved?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKENo confirmation of the newspaper report to which the noble Lord's Question calls attention has been received from Her 249 Majesty's Agent and Consul General in Tunis. With reference to the second portion of the noble Lord's Question, and the reply which I gave to him on Tuesday last, I may state that I have this day received from the Rev. E. Frankel the information, which he appears to have already given to the noble Lord, with regard to the ground adjoining the British Church, of which Mr. Frankel states that Mr. Reade was ordered by the President of the Municipality to take possession, and did so by having it fenced in and levelled for a lawn tennis court. If Mr. Reade considers that any injury has been done to British subjects or property, he will, no doubt, at once communicate with Her Majesty's Government on the subject.