§ COLONEL HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade what 151 authority there is for the assertion, in the Alien Immigration Return for July, that the 23,347 European aliens, who have arrived at 26 eastern ports of Great Britain since 1st January, have not come to this country for settlement; how many of them have been identified as having emigrated; and if he can state how many British sailors have been displaced from their employment by the influx of 6,161 foreign sailors since the 1st of January?
§ THE PRESIDENT or THE BOARD or TRADE (Mr. BRYCE,) Aberdeen, S.No such assertion as the question suggests is, in fact, made in the Alien Immigration Return for July. Of the 23,347 aliens there mentioned, a certain number remain in this country, and a certain number return to the Continent of Europe, or proceed to various other places abroad. It is not possible to state precisely how many of the arrivals belong to each of these classes; but the Statistical Tables and Report of Immigration and Emigration for 1893 (No. 90 of Session 1894) describe the various deductions which have to be made from the gross figures of arrivals in order to estimate the probable number of those who remain here. I know of no information going to show that British sailors are displaced by foreign sailors.
§ COLONEL HOWARD VINCENTasked whether the right hon. Gentleman had seen the statement in the Report, to the effect that there was a large emigration of foreigners from this country; and whether those foreigners who were alleged to emigrate consisted of those pauper emigrants whose coming into this country did so much harm to particular trades here? He would also ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he had read the statement in The Labour Gazette, edited by his Department, to the effect that in all ports, and especially in the Eastern ports, the supply of sailors was in excess of the demand, thereby showing that a large number of British sailors were out of employment?
§ MR. BRYCEsaid, the statement in The Labour Gazette did not bear the construction put upon it by his hon. Friend, but, in fact, was entirely different from it.
§ COLONEL HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade how many of the 21,337 aliens arriving since 1st January at the eastern 152 ports of Great Britain, alleging that they were going to America, have been refused a passage by the United States Consuls at Liverpool, Southampton, and Queenstown, or by the Steamship Lines, on the ground of unfitness to enter that Republic, or have been subsequently denied admission by the Board of Supervision in New York; and why those thrown back on Great Britain as unworthy to take up their abode in America are not accounted for in the Alien Immigration Return for July, which cannot otherwise be accurate?
§ MR. BRYCEI have no information respecting the number of foreign emigrants to the United States refused passage or rejected during the current year; but in 1893 the number of such emigrants sent back to the United Kingdom was only 99 out of 64,000 emigrants viâ United Kingdom, or about 1½ per 1,000, so that the accuracy of the Monthly Immigration Return can hardly be at all affected by this cause. The hon. Member will find full details on the subject in the Immigration and Emigration Report for 1893, to which I have just referred him, and he will also there find that the number of emigrants sent back to the United Kingdom from the United States was included in the year's Return of immigration into the United Kingdom from non-European countries.
§ COLONEL HOWARD VINCENTBut the Board of Supervision was only quite recently established in New York, and since that time several hundreds have been rejected.
§ MR. BRYCEThat Return if referred to will be found to include those who were sent back. The Board of Supervision has been established for some time.
§ MR. TOMLINSON (Preston)Does the Return include those who were not allowed to land, or only those who were landed and sent back?.
§ MR. BRYCEOur information is obtained from the Steamboat Companies, and, therefore, includes both classes.