SIR HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if the Registrar General has been able yet to furnish the numbers of aliens found in the country, and especially in London, at the recent census; and if, having regard to the danger of the continued immigration of four to five thousand persons a month of introducing the plague, he will consider the desirability of re-establishing the regulations adopted by his predecessor, the right hon. Member for East Wolverhampton, at the time of the cholera outbreak in Hamburg.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. WALTER LONG, Bristol, S.)Particulars as to the number of aliens will be published in the detailed abstract of the census returns required by the Census Act, but I learn from the Registrar General that he is not at present in a position to furnish them. I presume that the regulations to which my hon. friend refers were those dealing with vessels which, though not infected with cholera, had on board passengers in a filthy or unwholesome condition, or 1318 had come from a place infected with cholera. If so, I may state that similar regulations were made by my predecessor in 1896, extending also to plague. The regulations are still in force, and apply wherever the medical officer of health certifies that the action contemplated by them is desirable with a view of checking the introduction or spread of the disease. I may, however, add that aliens who come to reside in London for the most part arrive from ports which are not infected with plague.
MR. JAMES LOWTHER (Kent, Thanet)Does the right hon. Gentleman contemplate redeeming the pledge given by the Government in regard to legislation?
§ MR. WALTER LONGIn respect of what?
§ MR. WALTER LONGI have nothing to do with aliens, except so far as they touch the public health.