§ MR. A. M'ARTHUR (Leicester)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether, having regard to the desirability of imposing judicial penalties upon foreigners in Morocco who have committed acts of oppression on unoffending Natives, Her Majesty's Government will consider the expediency of giving fuller powers to Her Majesty's Representatives at Tangiers to punish British subjects, whether naturalized or otherwise, who may have been guilty of such offences; and, whether any untried prisoners are still confined in Moorish prisons on English claims?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JAMES FERGUSSON) (Manchester, N.E.)Without some specification of the alleged offences it is not possible to say whether the British Consular Court at Tangiers requires fuller powers for their repression should any British subjects be guilty of them. The Court has power to apply generally the Criminal Law of England where British subjects are charged with any crime or offence; and a new Order in Coun- 1523 cil regulating British jurisdiction in Morocco is at the present time under consideration, and will shortly be issued. Her Majesty's Government have been informed by Her Majesty's Minister at Tangiers that no one has been imprisoned at his instance since his arrival; that he has procured the release of two insolvent debtors, and that he had intervened to discourage the detaining of debtors in other cases. He added that there might be some prisoners for debt at a distance from the capital.