§ MR. S. SMITH (Flintshire)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether his attention has been drawn to the following account given in 941 The Piedmontese Gazette of the suicides which take place at Monte Carlo as the result of the gambling which is allowed there, several of them being of English people:—
Suicides at Monte Carlo are of frightful frequency. Since the case of Juan Calvados there have been another 30, which, with 19 I have already mentioned, brings the sum total to no less than 49 in two and a-half months. Every night the grounds are carefully searched by the police after the casino has closed. One man drags a covered spring cart, the wheels of which have india-rubber tires. When a body is found—for which a reward is given—it is immediately stripped of clothes and valuables, thrust into the cart, and silently hurried away and buried;and, whether the Government will endeavour, by concerted action with the other European Powers, to put an end to the gambling which prevails there, and is attended by such lamentable results?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JAMES FERGUSSON) (Manchester, N.E.)Her Majesty's Government have not received information to confirm the statements made in the newspaper quoted by the hon. Member. Her Majesty's Government could not propose concerted action with reference to the State of Monaco upon a newspaper paragraph, of the truth of which they have no knowledge, nor in any case would it be especially their duty to do so.