§ MR. BYRON REED (Bradford, E.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to the shocking treatment of certain British subjects, natives of Bradford, in Brazil, they having emigrated to that country; and whether Her Majesty's Government can take any steps to put a stop to the fraudulent action of emigration agencies which appear to be responsible for this state of things?
§ SIR J. FERGUSSONThe attention of this office has not been called to the specific cases referred to by the hon. Member, but many complaints as to the 1720 harsh treatment of certain British subjects, emigrants to Brazil, have been received, and statements of the distress in which many have fallen, in consequence of which a caution to intending emigrants was issued by the Emigration Information Office last April, and it is understood that this warning has been widely circulated. A caution of a similar nature has been published in the Board of Trade Journal. The most recent reports show that the great mass of British and Irish emigrants to Brazil find the circumstances distasteful, and do not become reconciled to them, although Italians and Portuguese, in large numbers, thrive there, and also, to a less extent, Germans.