§ MR. HEDDERWICK (Wick Burghs)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Foreign 225 Office has learned through Her Majesty's Consul General in Antwerp that the cargo of arms and ammunition, which the prisoners of the Tourmaline are alleged to have landed and sold in the Sus country, was discharged in the port of Antwerp in April last.
MR. CURZONThis case is now proceeding in the Consular Court at Tangier, and in these circumstances I should not feel justified in making any statement about it in this House.
§ MR. HEDDERWICKI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the solicitors employed for the defence of the Tourmaline prisoners, about to be tried at Tangier for an alleged sale of arms and ammunition in the Sus country, have applied to the Foreign Office for, and have been refused, a safe conduct for a witness for the defence—namely, Mr. Arthur Watling; and, if so, upon what grounds have the Foreign Office based their refusal of a safe conduct in such a case?
MR. CURZONNo question of safe conduct arose. It was beyond the power of Her Majesty's Government to guarantee immunity from arrest to the witness in question. Such immunity does not attach to a witness where the possibility of a criminal charge is involved.