§ MR. J. R. MACDONALD (Leicester)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state the total number of immigrants rejected under the provisions of the Aliens Act, differentiating between those rejected after appeal and without appeal; also the number arriving from Russia, and the number of these rejected; and whether he would state what is the nature of proof required to establish the fact that an immigrant is a political refugee.
§ * MR. GLADSTONEThe figures of rejections for February are still being worked out, but I hope to be able to give them every shortly. In January, as I stated in answer to a similar question on the 1st instant, eighty-six alien immigrants were refused leave to land on appeal, and three did not appeal from the refusal of the immigration officer; total, eighty-nine. Owing to the number of alien passengers landing in the United Kingdom it has not been possible yet with the staff at my disposal to distinguish all the nationalities and extract the numbers of those who are Russians. For the moment I can only say that of the eighty-nine persons from whom leave to land was withheld in January, fifty-six were of Russian nationality; 298 but I should like to add that only two of these came direct from Russian ports. I am making inquiry of the several Immigration Boards on the point raised in the last sentence of the hon. Member's Question.