§ SIR ANDREW AGNEWsaid he wished to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Privy Council, Whether he is aware of the extreme danger to the health of the community arising from the neglect of sanitary precautions on the part of Emigration Agents and Contractors; and, whether Her Majesty's Government are prepared to take steps to oblige agents and contractors to provide suitable accommodation for all passengers landed by them at any British Port?
MR. H. A. BRUCEsaid, in reply, that the Government were quite aware that the accommodation for the reception of emigrants on the eastern coast of England 961 was altogether inadequate, and was fraught with considerable danger to the public health. Her Majesty's Government had communicated with all the ports at which emigrants were landed, and called the attention of the local authorities to the necessity for providing proper accommodation. This appeal had not only been made to them by the Privy Council, but the Poor Law Board had also instructed its inspectors to urge the same recommendations. Her Majesty's Government had communicated with the foreign countries from which emigrants came, and had represented to them that the principal Liverpool steam companies had refused to convey any more emigrants. The effect of this would be to stop emigration from the North of Europe, with the exception of a certain number of persons who had already paid their passage money. The Secretary of State for the Home Department had written to the Mayor of Liverpool, recommending that the companies conducting emigration should be urged to return the passage money of emigrants coming from infected ports, and taking their passage from our ports, and this recommendation was, he believed, being acted upon. The greater part of these emigrants came from Northern Germany, which was free from cholera, but considerable numbers of them passed through Rotterdam, where cholera prevailed. Every effort was being made to stop the flow of emigration from the infected regions and ports.