§ MR. MITCHELL-THOMSONI beg to ask the Secretary "of State for Foreign Affairs whether His Majesty's Government have received any representations from the Canadian Government on behalf of the captain and crew of the "Gertrude," which is detained at Monte Video on a charge of illegal sealing; whether the captain and crew are imprisoned there; whether he is aware that in the case of the "Agnes" the captain and crew were detained in prison for some weeks and finally released on the ground that there was no law prohibiting fishing in Uruguayan waters; whether any such law has since been passed; and, if not, whether he will instruct His Britannic Majesty's representative in Uruguay to use every effort to secure the immediate release of the captain and crew of the "Gertrude."
§ SIR EDWARD GREYHis Majesty's Government have received information that four British subjects, sealers of the Canadian schooner "Alice Gertrude," have been arested by the Uruguayan authorities at Rocha on a charge of illicit sealing, and we are in communication with the Canadian Government in regard to the matter. It is true that, in the case of the "Agnes G. Donahoe," the master and crew were detained in prison for some weeks and finally released, but it was on the expiration of their sentence, and not on the ground that there was no law prohibiting fishing in Uruguayan waters. There was not at that time, nor is there, so far as His Majesty's Government are aware, any such law in Uruguay. His Majesty's Minister at Monte Video, who is watch- 1002 ing the case carefully, has just reported that the Judge has decided on purely technical grounds that he had no jurisdiction, and that the prisoners should be sent back for trial to Rocha. Every endeavour will be made to secure that they are properly defended.