HC Deb 19 March 1897 vol 47 cc1028-9
MR. HAVELOCK WILSON

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1) whether the attention of the Foreign Office has been called to the death of a Newport seaman, named John Price, serving on the steamship Bergnon as steward, at Bilbao, on the 27th day of February 1897; (2) whether he is aware that the body was buried by the Spanish authorities in the corner of a field without burial service, although there is an English cemetery at Bilbao; and whether he can state the reasons, if any, why the Spanish authorities failed to notify Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at that port that the body of a British subject had been interred in such an irregular manner; and (3) whether he has received from Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Bilbao any report with reference to this man's mysterious death; and, if not, will be cause inquiries to be instituted into the case?

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. G. CURZON,) Lancashire, Southport

There is no information at the Foreign Office in regard to the case of John Price. Her Majesty's Consul at Bilbao has, however, been instructed to furnish a report upon it, and his attention has been specially called to the points adverted to in the second paragraph of the hon. Member's question.