HC Deb 15 March 1892 vol 2 cc883-5
MR. BALLANTINE (Coventry)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs upon what grounds the assistance given by the Foreign Office and the British Embassy at Paris to Mr. Purdie was denied to Messrs. Cooper and Bednell, who were arrested and imprisoned at St. Etienne under the Espionage Act; whether the Foreign Office at the time of the arrest of Cooper and Bednell was furnished with testimonials to the good character and respectability of Bednell from the heads of the Technical Institute at Coventry, who had sent him to St. Etienne to complete his studies there, and from the Mayor and Authorities at Coventry, in which city Bednell had passed the whole of his life, and what efforts were made by the Foreign Office to obtain his release; and whether the Foreign Office will now endeavour to obtain compensation from the French Government for the imprisonment which Bednell has suffered?

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. J. W. LOWTHER,) Cumberland, Penrith

The two cases mentioned by the hon. Member are quite dissimilar. Mr. Purdie was arrested on suspicion, and was not permitted to communicate with Her Majesty's Embassy for some days. When his case was investigated he was at once discharged. Messrs. Cooper and Bednell were tried upon a charge of "espionage" and convicted. There are no grounds for saying that the proceedings were irregular. The British Vice Consul watched the case, and rendered to them all the assistance possible. Her Majesty's Government have made unofficial representations to the French Government, with a view to obtain a mitigation of the sentence passed on Bednell; but there are no grounds for claiming compensation on his behalf.

MR. BALLANTINE

Can the hon. Gentleman explain how it was that the Foreign Office and the British Embassy interfered so promptly in the case of Mr. Purdie, and that they absolutely refused to interfere in the case of Messrs. Cooper and Bednell?

MR. J. W. LOWTHER

I do not think the statement of the hon. Member is quite borne out by the facts, so far as the Foreign Office is aware of them. I am not aware that the attention of the Embassy was called directly the gentlemen in question were arrested. So soon as it came to the notice of the authorities that he was arrested, the Vice Consul at Lyons, who was the nearest official to the spot, at once proceeded to St. Etienne and took such steps as were in his power to obtain his release, but was unsuccessful.

MR. PICTON

I desire to ask the hon. Gentleman whether, in future, Her Majesty's Government will endeavour to secure that, in cases similar to that of Mr. Purdie, British subjects, when arrested in France, shall be allowed at once to communicate with the British Embassy?

MR. J. W. LOWTHER

I answered the question of the hon. Member, in reply to a question put to me by an hon. Member yesterday, in the affirmative. I said that steps would be taken to make arrangements with the French Government that the attention of the Embassy should be at once called to the fact of an arrest of a British subject having taken place.