§ SIR HENRY HOLLAND (Hampstead)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the attention of the Secretary of State has been drawn to the case of a Mr. Coles, a British subject, who was, as he alleges, unlawfully tried and sentenced to imprisonment at Port au Prince; and, whether any steps have been or will be taken to investigate the facts of the case, and, if his statement be correct, to obtain redress for Mr. Coles?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. BRYCE) (Aberdeen, S.)Her Majesty's Government are fully acquainted with the details of the trial, which led to a sentence of three years' imprisonment being passed on Mr. Coles by the Haytian Court of Assize. In their opinion, that trial was a gross miscarriage of justice. Her Majesty's Government have made vigorous representations to the Haytian Government on this subject, but so far without effect. Her Majesty's Government are consequently sending, as Commissioner to Port au Prince, Mr. Clement Hill, of the Foreign Office, who will be instructed to call the serious attention of the Haytian Government to this case, as well as to the complaints received from other British subjects resident in Hayti, of acts of oppression and denial of justice to which they had been subjected by the Haytian Authorities.