§ COLONEL ALEXANDERasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign, 559 Affairs, If he can now state the result of his inquiry into the circumstances under which eight Jewesses were bastinadoed at Casablanca by order of the Interpreter to the British Vice Consul at that place?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEHer Majesty's Minister in Morocco has telegraphed, in answer to the inquiry which I stated on March 6 had been addressed to him, that it is true that eight Jewesses, said to be prostitutes, were flogged by the Governor of Dar-el-Baida, or Casablanca, on January 29. Amiel, a native Jew, who appears to be employed by the Vice Consul as an interpreter, but is not a paid official of the Foreign Office, was present at the punishment; but no certain information has yet been received as to whether he instigated it. Amiel's sons were also flogged and imprisoned by the Governor, with the consent of their father, for having discharged a pistol at the latter, when remonstrated with for having been led into vicious habits by these women. Sir J. Drummond Hay has directed Vice Consul Lapeen to dismiss Amiel from employment for having boon present at the flogging, and to express to the Governor disapproval of the flogging of women under any circumstances. Mr. Lapeen has also been instructed to inquire whether the punishment was inflicted at the instigation of Amiel. Full particulars are promised by post. As it has been stated that on a former occasion I denied the existence of such a place as Casablanca, I wish to point out that I carefully guarded myself from doing anything of the kind. What I said was that the Foreign Office had not been able to identify it at the moment, and that we had telegraphed to Her Majesty's Minister in Morocco for information. Dar-el-Baida, Sir, is not only not marked in the ordinary maps and books of reference, as Casablanca, but it is marked on several by the duplicate name of Anfa. On the Admiralty chart, and on the large map of Morocco, officially published by the French Government, the place is only marked as Dar-el-Baida. As soon, however, as it was ascertained in the Office that there was some doubt on the subject, I wrote a private letter, on March 7, to the Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, of which I am myself a member, suggesting that it was, no doubt, the Spanish name of a 560 Moorish town, and asking which it was. Those communications, however, did not pass in time for me to use the results in my reply to the hon. and gallant Member, whoso Question was asked on the 6th. The House will see that there has been no neglect on the part of the Foreign Office.