§ MR. MONCKTON MILNESsaid, he rose, pursuant to notice, to put a question | to the Government respecting the effect of the New Passport Regulations in Belgium on British subjects, and to call the attention of the House to the inconveniences of the present system of the delivery of Passports by the Foreign Office. He understood it was the intention of the Government to make some communication to the House on the subject, and he wished, in the first place, to express his gratification at the great attention which the noble Lord the present Secretary for Foreign Affairs had given to this subject after the representations made by an independent Member of the House of Commons. He (Mr. Monckton Milnes) would be very glad to indulge in the anticipation that the reply to his present question would be altogether satisfactory, but he feared there would be no satisfactory solution of this question until the passport system was abolished altogether; but, if that could not be, he hoped the Foreign Office would not relax their efforts until the minimum of inconvenience and the least possible trouble resulted from them to the English traveller. Since he bad last addressed the House on the subject, the French Government had made a certain relaxation in the oppressive restrictions at first laid down. It appeared from the papers that a communication had been made to our Foreign Office, stating that competent authorities would be allowed for the future, as heretofore, to furnish to British subjects, resident in France, passports for travelling in the French territories, and also, in eases of great necessity, for their return to England. He might observe, however, that doubts existed in the minds of some persons as to what was meant by "competent authorities." Did these words refer to French authorities or to the English consuls resident in 1182 France? It was greatly to be regretted that the unwise policy which France had adopted on this question bad effected the conduct of another country with which we were most closely connected. He felt assured that the House would do him the justice to suppose that he did not wish to speak with the slightest disrespect of Belgium, but he must, nevertheless, say that it appeared to him somewhat extraordinary that the Government of that country should have imposed restrictions with respect to the granting of passports quite as objectionable as those which had been laid down by the French Government. Until within the last few days nothing could be more free than was the intercourse between England and Belgium. An Englishman wishing to visit that country might have obtained a Foreign-office passport, and have it visé, by a Belgian consul here, and all those who happened to be summoned thither by any sudden emergency might procure a passport from the Belgian Consul for a very small fee, by means of which he would be enabled to proceed to his destination. Now, however, without even that shadow of provocation which the French Government could allege, the Belgian Government had thought proper to depart from the liberal system formerly existing, and no person was allowed to land in Belgium unless he happened to possess a Foreign-office passport; while no Englishman who was residing in that country, and who wished to go elsewhere, could do so without obtaining a Foreign-office passport from London. He regretted extremely to find that such obstacles had been thrown in the way of our intercourse in that country, in as much as it bad hitherto been of the most intimate and cordial character. A great number of English children were constantly sent to Belgium to school, while the English population in all its great towns was very considerable. It was under those circumstances he thought it extremely desirable that we should endeavour to remove the impediments which had been recently thrown in the way of the continuance of so desirable a state of things, while he entirely concurred with the hon. Gentleman the Member for Birmingham (Mr. Bright), that the best mode of seeking to bring about that result would be by making representations of the most respectful character to the Belgian Government upon the subject. He trusted Her Majesty's Government would not fail to take that course, and it might, he 1183 thought, do so in a tone somewhat different from that which it might use towards Franco, inasmuch as the latter country, owing to the attempt which had lately been made on the life of the Emperor, had political reasons to urge in defence of its policy with reference to the system of passports, which in the case of Belgium could have no place. With respect to the general question of passports between England and both those countries, it was his opinion that we ought not to be content until we had returned to the system which until a recent period prevailed. Since the year 1815, up to within the last few weeks, Englishmen might pass over to either France or Belgium without being subjected to any considerable inconvenience, and he trusted that state of things would soon be re-established, and that persons who happened to be called abroad upon a sudden emergency would, for as short a time as possible, be subjected to the annoyance to which the recent regulations in reference to passports exposed them. Those regulations contained no provision to meet the case of the shipowner whose vessel might be stranded on the French or Belgian coast, and to whom t might be of the utmost importance to proceed to the scene of the disaster, without delay; nor did they continue to the different English yacht clubs that privilege of entering a French port, untrammeled by passport regulations, which those clubs had hitherto enjoyed. He trusted Her Majesty's Ministers would not lose sight of those facts, but that they would exercise all their energies to place those passport regulations upon a more satisfactory footing. In his Sentimental Journey, Sterne made use of an expression, to the effect that, having been asked for his passport, and not finding one, he had then, for the first time, recollected that this country was at war with France, showing that up to a comparatively late period no such documents were required, except as safe-conducts during time of war. He wished he could see a reasonable prospect of our being able to return to so desirable a state of things, and he might add that he derived the utmost satisfaction from the statement which had been made by a noble Lord, in another place (the Earl of Malmesbury), the evening before, to the effect that the Emperor of the French was not favourable to the passport system, and maintained it solely in obedience to those official influences by which every Government was 1184 more or less hampered in the attempt to effect any great reform.
MR. SEYMOUR FITZGERALDwas understood to observe that he would reply to points touched by the hon. Gentleman, in the order in which he had put them. First, then, with reference to the complaint that nothing had been done by the Foreign Office, with respect to the granting of passports to meet those cases of sudden emergency which arose from time to time, and the hardships connected with which the hon. Gentleman had, upon a former occasion, so fully detailed to the House, he had to reply that the difficulties to which the hon. Gentleman had called the attention of the Government did not really exist, inasmuch as if application were made, even at the present moment, by any person making a statement to the effect that a relative was upon the point of death, either in Franco or Belgium, or that any other circumstance of great emergency called him abroad, to the Foreign Office for a passport, that application would, without any recommendation whatsoever, at once be complied with. In reference to the case of the English yacht clubs, to which the hon. Member alluded, he could only say that a request had been made to the French Government to extend to these clubs the same privileges, in reference to passports, which they had for so many years continued to enjoy. To that request a refusal had, in the first instance, been returned; but the British ambassador at Paris had represented in so strong a manner the inconveniences which would be the result of that refusal, that Count Walewski had undertaken to reconsider the question, and had asked for those documents upon which the members of the yacht clubs founded their right to land in France, unrestricted by passport regulations. Those papers had accordingly been forwarded to him; and Her Majesty's Government were in expectation of an immediate reply from the French Government upon the subject. The hon. Gentleman also spoke with something like anger of the course which had been recently adopted by the Belgian Government. It was quite true that, within the last two or three days, Her Majesty's Ministers had received intimation that the Belgian consuls would not be allowed henceforth to issue passports to British subjects who were desirous of going abroad, but that circumstance would not be productive of so much inconvenience as the hon. Gentleman 1185 seemed to suppose. It was true, indeed, that British subjects, who merely intended to proceed to Belgium, would not have the facilities afforded them which they enjoyed under the old system; but, in the case of that numerous class who went to Belgium, intending to pass through to France, the hardship would not be felt, because, according to the recent regulations of the French Government, English subjects, provided only with Belgian passports, would not be allowed to cross the French frontier. The hardships of the case were, not, therefore, quite so great as the hon. Gentleman would lead the House to infer. Hon. Members were, he had no doubt, aware, by means of the ordinary channels of information, of the steps which had been taken by Her Majesty's Government to obviate the inconveniences which had been found to arise from the narrowness of the circle within which recommendations for passports could be obtained, and that the power of granting a recommendation for a passport had been extended to barristers, solicitors, physicians, surgeons, clergymen—in short, to almost everybody who happened to occupy a respectable position in society. All that the Government required, in order to grant a passport, was a certificate of the identity of the person who wished to obtain it; and he might add that passports would for the future be issued at a cost of 2s. each. He, for one, should be very glad that they could be furnished for a less sum; but, as it was important they should be issued upon stamped paper, in order to avoid fraud, he was afraid the expense could not well he diminished. He might also state that agents would be appointed, for the issue of passports, at Dovor, Folkestone, Southampton, Newhaven, and Liverpool; there were also to be agents at one or two points on the eastern coast, and, in fact, at any other of our ports at which it was found expedient that they should be established. The French Government, he might add, had, upon their side, appointed French agents to visé passports at some of the ports at which they were to be issued; and he trusted those arrangements would diminish, as much as possible, the inconveniences which the necessity of procuring these objectionable documents must always impose.