§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSON (Manchester, N.E.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to an article in the Shipping World of 24th May, 1899, concerning the shipping office of Her Majesty's Consul-General at New York; whether that office is situated at a great distance from the general office of the Consulate-General, and is crowded by boarding-house keepers, crimps, and low characters, whose presence on the occasions when seamen are engaged and discharged leads habitually to scenes of intimidation, disturbance and outrage; and whether he does or does not have made out in his own office and there handed to the seamen the advance notes, which, it is alleged, they are at present compelled to give up to the boarding-house keeper.
§ * MR. BRODRICKMy attention has been called to the article mentioned in the question. Several reports have from time to time been received from Her Majesty's Consul-General on the subject of the arrangements in force for the engagement and discharge of seamen at New York. The Consular shipping office, which is in the same street and close to the general office of the Consul-General, is open to the public, and no persons desiring to resort to it for business purposes are excluded so long as they conduct themselves with propriety. The question whether on the occasions when seamen are engaged or discharged the office should be cleared of all persons not immediately concerned in the transaction is under consideration. It is not the fact that disorderly scenes are of common occurrence in the Consulate. In an office where upwards of 20,000 seamen are engaged and discharged annually it is practically inevitable that disturbances should occasionally take place, but such incidents are exceptional, and generally no difficulty is experienced in keeping order. With regard to advance notes, I should state that the payment of 307 an advance to a seaman is a criminal offence according to United States law.