§ MR. JORDANI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that, after the Dacca was wrecked in the Red Sea last May, two girls, Ann and Maria Walsh, of Bally- 365 dinan, County Clare, emigrants to Australia, were brought back to Suez and detained there a month, waiting for the ship Zaroba; that, though their trunks and outfit were lost, the Company only tendered them £2 each, an offer afterwards increased to £8 each, which they were constrained to accept; and whether the law affords any protection to emigrants in such cases; and, if not, if he would take the subject into his consideration, with a view of providing some authority to which friendless emigrants might have recourse for assistance and advice?
§ * SIR M. HICKS BEACHI have not received any official Report of the circumstances to which the hon. Member refers, but through the courtesy of a Representative of the Queensland Government, I am informed that the passengers in question were sent out with other emigrants in the Dacca by the Queensland Government. After the wreck of the Dacca, they were transferred to another vessel, on which they were kept and treated, exactly as they would have been on the Dacca, until it was possible to send them on to their destination. I am also informed that they were not in need of advice or assistance, and were not landed at Suez. I need hardly remind the hon. Member that British subjects who may be in need of advice abroad can always have recourse to Her Majesty's Representatives. As regards compensation for loss of outfit, &c, that is obviously a matter for arrangement between the parties concerned, and I do not think the circumstances of this case show the necessity for any alteration of the law with regard to emigrants.