§ SIR ROBERT FOWLER (London)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether James Clarke Clinton, a British subject, has been expelled by the French authorities from Assinee, on the West Coast of Africa, and whether the business carried on there by Adeline Clinton, also a British subject, the widow of his late brother, has been closed by order of the same authorities; whether the said James Clarke Clinton, having taken his residence in neutral territory adjoining Assinee, has been expelled from there by the same authorities; whether the French Resident at Assinee is one Verdier, a partner in the firm of Verdier and Company trading there, and rivals in business to the said James Clarke Clinton and Adeline Clinton; whether the steps so taken by the French authorities have been initiated and carried out by Treich la Pleine, one of the employés of the said Verdier and Company; whether the said firm of Verdier and Company are collecting and appropriating from the natives around Assinee the produce which such natives owe to the said James Clarke Clinton and Adeline Clinton; and, whether Her Majesty's Government are taking any steps for the protection of the said James Clarke Clinton and Adeline Clinton personally and for the protection of their property?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JAMES FERGUSSON) (Manchester, N.E.)It is the fact that Mr. Clinton was expelled from Assinee. All the circumstances of the case are the subject of discussion with the French Government; and I am not in a position at present to express an opinion upon them.