§ COLONEL HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the Executive Authorities of nearly every Continental State have the power to expel and conduct to the frontier any person whoso presence is considered dangerous to the commonwealth, and that by these means considerable numbers of dangerous characters are reported to have been lately sent to England from France and elsewhere, every other State 722 denying them admission; and if, under the circumstances of the day, the Government propose to place any limit upon foreign immigration or the reception in the overcrowded centres of the United Kingdom of the refuse population of Europe?
§ MR. ASQUITHIt is the fact that in most of the Continental States the Executive possesses a power of expulsion which is not given to it by the Constitution of this country. There is no doubt also that, by reason of the exercise of this power, dangerous and objectionable characters from time to time find their way into England, not unfre-quently, I regret to say, without any warning being given to us by the authorities of the country from which they are expelled. Her Majesty's Government are not of opinion that, in this respect, any necessity has arisen for a change in the law which has so long prevailed in Great Britain, and which they believe to be sufficient both for our own protection and for the due performance of our International duties. I should add that we are ready and anxious to co-operate with other countries in any practical measures that can be devised for dealing more effectually with Anarchists and similar enemies of society. But, in our opinion, the direction which International efforts can most fruitfully take is to be found not so much in an extension of the power of expulsion on suspicion—which is apt to confound the innocent with the guilty, and to shift the burden and the danger from one country to another—as in a more constant and concerted interchange of information and combined action, both detective and punitive, between the Governments and Police Authorities of the different nations of the world.