§ MR. W. S. ROBSON (South Shields)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, what report he has received as to the seizure and imprisonment of four British sailors of the steamship Balgownie by the Spanish Authorities at Ponnan on the 31st May last; whether, although no charge whatever was preferred against some of them, while the prisoners were chained together in gaol before trial, two of them (including one of the admittedly innocent men) were violently assaulted and beaten with a loaded stick by an official in the presence of Spanish officers and civil guards; whether he will make further inquiries; and, if the above facts are established, whether he will take steps to obtain compensation for the innocent man thus assaulted, and to insure that the officials in question shall be reprimanded, so as to prevent the repetition of similar assaults on British sailors in Spanish ports?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. GEORGE CURZON,) Lancashire, SouthportA report has been received from Her Majesty's Vice Consul at Carthagena from which it appears that while the boatswain and carpenter of the Balgownie were arrested by the Spanish Authorities at Ponnan for an assault 31 when slightly the worse for liquor, upon a Spanish Carabinero, who had been placed by the Customs' Authorities on board, two other sailors of the vessel, who had nothing to do with the affair were similarly arrested, but subsequently discharged, no formal complaint having been brought against them. No complaint as to the ill-treatment alleged in the question appears to have been made to the Vice Consul by the men themselves or by the captain on their behalf; nor is there any reference in the Vice Consul's report to the alleged assault. I have, however, called for a further report in order to investigate the matters in dispute.