§ MR. HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If the Imperial Government is aware that the American Continent forms the principal refuge for fugitives from British justice; if it is a fact that the Parliament of Canada long since passed a Law to check the influx of American fugitives into the Dominion, to take effect as soon as the relations between the two peoples of the Anglo-Saxon race could be placed on a footing more consonant with the friendship existing between them and with modern civilisation; and, if steps are being taken to conclude a new Treaty of Extradition to replace the one of 1842, extending to only six crimes, between Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States of America; and, in such case, what prospect there is of its early completion?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. BRYCE) (Aberdeen, S.)The Government of Her Majesty the Queen are not in possession of any exact statistics as to the various refuges of fugitives from British justice. No law of the nature described in the second paragraph of the hon. Member's Question is known to have been passed by the Parliament of Canada, for I cannot suppose that his expression refers to the general Extradition Act passed by Canada in 1877, which follows very closely the Imperial Act of 1870, and which provides for carrying into effect existing or future Extradition Treaties between Her Majesty and Foreign Powers. Negotiations for the conclusion of more satisfactory arrangements in regard to extradition between Her Majesty's Dominions and the United States, are at this moment in progress, and it is hoped may shortly be completed.