§ MR. LEIF JONES (Westmoreland, Appleby)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the case of six political refugees, named Yussa Friedman, Itzig Darchewsky, Rosa Darchewsky, Meyer Ternapolsky, David Cooperberg, and Moses Licht, who arrived in London on 24th February, and were refused permission to land by the Immigration Board; whether he can state on what grounds these immigrants were rejected; and what steps he proposes to take to safeguard the right of asylum for the victims of religious and political persecution.
§ MR. GLADSTONEI am informed that in all these cases the ground for rejection was that the immigrants showed no reasonable prospect of maintaining himself or being maintained decently, with additional reason of senility in the ease of Cooperberg. As regards the suggestion that these persons were the victims of persecution, it is right to point out that Friedman and Licht said that they had left wives and children in Russia; and in no case was any credible story of persecution or danger told to the Board; in some cases no such suggestion was even made. In no case did the immigrants represent to the Immigration Officer that he was a refugee, nor did the notice of appeal say so, not even in the case of Ternapolsky, who had in his possession letters from England, telling him to say that he had been hiding in a cellar without food or water, had been in great danger, and had had neighbours tilled before his eyes; and on no account to say that the £5 which he bad with him was not his own.