§ SIR R. ASSHETON CROSSasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether any communications have passed between the Foreign Office and Her Majesty's Minister at Madrid on the subject of the Cuban Refugees other than those which have been presented to Parliament?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICESir, if my right hon. Friend alludes to confidential communications, his Question is, perhaps, rather unusual. I understand, however, that the specific reference is to a statement made by my Predecessor to the effect that Her Majesty's Minister at Madrid had asked Her Majesty's Government not to make any statement until the matter was complete. That statement was perfectly accurate.
SIR H. DRUMMONDWOLFFasked, Whether the noble Lord had yet received any answer to the despatch, asking whether General Maceo had been subjected to unnecessary indignities in his incarceration?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEin reply, said, that, as he had informed the House yesterday, they had no reason to believe that the statement that General Maceo had been transferred from Ceuta to Pampeluna was incorrect. The statements as to his ill-treatment referred to the time previous to that transfer; but, at the same time, he (Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice) did not want to make too much of that transfer, because, as he understood, General Maceo was a gentleman who had been accustomed all 364 his life to live in a very warm climate, and the transfer might not be of appreciable benefit, nor altogether a welcome one. Enjoying, as he had always done, great freedom of action, it would be difficult to reconcile him to the discipline of a Spanish prison.