§ SIR HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware that eight families of German gipsies, numbering seventy-five persons, led by a Bavarian named Peter Goi, arrived last March at Leith from Hamburg, and have since been a source of inconvenience and expense to the local authorities and people of Glasgow, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Hull, York, Leeds, Wakefield, Barnsley, Sheffield, and Manchester, as well as to the intervening districts; if he can state who was responsible for the admission of these aliens; if he will reimburse the areas concerned the costs to which they 1357 have been put by the laches of the Immigration Department of the Home Office; and how soon he will rid the country of these foreign caravans under the powers conferred upon him by the last Parliament.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. GLADSTONE, Leeds, W.)The bands of German gipsies referred to by my hon. and gallant friend presumably form part of those who landed in Scotland, as he says, in March, April and May. When it became apparent that the traffic in these aliens was being organised so that they could escape inspection I took steps, as announced to this House on May 10th, to secure that any further arrivals by the steamship line which was carrying them should be subjected to inspection. Those steps were successful in preventing any further arrivals. The admission of these aliens was not due to any failure on the part of the officials engaged in administering the Aliens Act, and that Act gives me no jurisdiction to deal with them.
§ SIR HOWARD VINCENTHow are we to get rid of these wretched people?
§ MR. GLADSTONEI am afraid no action can be taken unless people interested provide money for their passage to the Continent.