HC Deb 16 August 1916 vol 85 cc1830-1
9. Mr. BLISS

asked the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that a few weeks ago Field-Marshal von Weber, Military Governor of Montenegro, issued a proclamation to the effect that if General Veshovitch, the Montenegrin ex-Minister of War, and his two brothers, who had fled from the country, did not surrender themselves within a few days, his father, aged seventy-five, and another brother, who were held as hostages would be hung; whether he has any official information showing that this threat has been carried out; and, if so, whether he will take cognisance of the fact and hold Field-Marshal von Weber personally responsible for the outrage at the end of the War?

The UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Lord Robert Cecil)

Information in the sense of the first part of the question has reached me, and in a subsequent edition of the "Bosnishe Post"—an official newspaper, edited and published in German at Sarajeo—it was stated that the brother of the general was executed, but that his father, "by an exceptional act of mercy," had been reprieved. For our future action as regards proceedings of this kind I understand that a question is on the Paper addressed to the Prime Minister which deals with this matter.