§ 3. Colonel YATEasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has any official information to the effect that the British Consul, bank manager, and other members of the British community at Shiraz, in Persia, now held prisoners at Ahram, near Bushire, by German emissaries, are being badly treated by their captors; and whether he can give any 1329 information as regards the safety of Mr. and Mrs. Christmas, of the Indo-European Telegraph Department, who are reported to have left Shiraz for Ispahan about the middle of November last?
§ Lord R. CECILThe latest information I have received though not from an official source, is that the British subjects detained at Ahram are not being so well treated as they were at first. As regards the last part of the question Mrs. Christmas has reached this country, but I regret that I have no information as to the present whereabouts of Mr. Christmas.