§ SIR HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will state if any, and, if so, how many, of the aliens who have in recent years emigrated from England but were rejected by the United States and the Dominion of Canada as unworthy of admission to North American soil, having been, or being, convicts, idiots, lunatics, paupers, or so diseased as likely to become a public charge, are still maintained at the expense of the British people; and, if so, whether he can take steps to prevent this being done in the future.
(Answered by Mr. Gerald Balfour.) I have no means of answering the Question directly, but I have ascertained by inquiry from the principal shipping companies 1074 which carried the persons other than British subjects who were landed in this country in 1902, after being rejected by the United States or Canadian authorities, that the great majority of these persons were sent by them out of the United Kingdom. Out of a total of 423 aliens so landed I have definite information that at least 384 were repatriated, and probably this was also the case with several of the remaining thirty-nine who have not yet been traced.