§ MR. DUCKWORTH (Lancs, Middleton)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, considering the long delay of their trial, the hardships and sufferings they have already undergone, and the fact that had it not been for the information supplied by the British Foreign Office they would probably have escaped, the Government will now use its best offices with the Moorish Government to secure the pardon and release of Mr. Harry Grey and the other three British subjects who were recently condemned in the Consular Court in Tangiers to terms of three and four months imprisonment?
MR. CURZONThe sentences were pronounced by the Chief Justice at Gibraltar, and Her Majesty's Minister at Tangier has informed us that the time during which the prisoners had been in detention was taken into consideration in allotting the sentences. I am afraid that the fact that the service in which the prisoners were engaged was in 655 deliberate disregard of the repeated warnings given, by the Foreign Office can hardly be accepted as a ground for mitigation of sentence. It is proposed, however, that the imprisonment shall, if possible, take place, not in Morocco, but in Gibraltar.