§ SIR THOMAS DEWAR (Tower Hamlets, St. George's)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will furnish a classified list showing the nature of the crimes for which the bulk of the 4,833 aliens in His Majesty's prisons are at present undergoing sentences.
1388 (Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) The figure quoted by the hon. Member is not the number of aliens at present undergoing sentence, but the total number received under sentence in all the prisons in Great Britain and Ireland during the year 1904. The number at present in prison is very much less, only seven or eight hundred. The Royal Commission on Alien Immigration gave in their Report (Vol. III., p. 81) a classification of the offences committed by aliens received under sentence during the years 1889 to 1903. I think that these figures should sufficiently meet the purpose which the hon. Member has in view. The total for 1904 is higher, but there is no reason to think that the proportion of the different classes of offences has altered materially. To compile a similar classification for the year 1904 would involve a laborious examination of the prison records, which I should be reluctant to impose on the hard-worked staff of the prisons.
Cause of accident. Total number of accidents to persons or property. Number of accidents to property. Number of accidents to persons. Total number of persons injured in accidents shown in column IV. Nature of accidents to persons. Number slight. Number serious. Number fatal. (I.) (II.) (III.) (IV.) V. (VI.) (VII.) (VIII.) Horses 277 78 193 206 177 27 2 Horse-drawn vehicles 15,736 11,711 4,916 5,126 4,473 543 110 16,013 11,789 5,109 5,332 4,650 570 112