5. Mr. EDMUND HARVEYasked if the Foreign Secretary is aware that, when the Barbadian British subjects, recruited for the Peruvian Amazon Company, realised the nature of the work on the Putumayo, they appealed to the British Vice-Consul at Manaos to secure their release from their contracts; whether this official refused to assist them; whether he 759 reported this incident; and whether this gentleman is still in the service of His Majesty's Government?
Mr. BENNI have no information beyond what is stated on page 11 of the Putumayo Blue Book, no report of the incident having been made to this Department. It would in any case in my opinion have been difficult for the British Vice-Consul, an unsalaried official who has since resigned his appointment, to have taken steps to obtain the release of the men in question from their contracts on the strength of rumours which he had no means of verifying.