§ MR. BONAR LAW (Camberwell, Dulwich)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the number of foreigners who hold public-house licences in England and Wales, in Scotland, and in Ireland.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) There is no information in my Department or, as I learn, in the Scottish and Irish Offices, enabling me to answer this Question accurately. I am not aware of any statistics bearing more nearly, in point of date and otherwise, on the Question put to me than those which are to be found in the Occupation and Nationality Tables of the Census Reports. Foreigners, to the number of 638, are shown as engaged in England and Wales in the year 1901 in occupations broadly classified as "Inn, Hotel-keepers: Publicans, Beersellers, and Cider Dealers" (Cd. 1523, pp. 280–1) in Scotland twenty-nine foreigners are shown under the heading "Inn, Hotel-keepers: Publicans, Wine and Spirit Merchants" (Cd. 1798, p. 771). The precise meaning of "foreigner" in these Reports depends on the rules set out in the Reports as having been adopted for the purpose of classification. In the Census Reports for Ireland (where occupations in which not more than forty foreigners were engaged are not shown separately) there is no entry of foreigners under a heading similar to the foregoing. I am informed that it has been ascertained that there are three foreigners holding public-house licences in the Dublin Metropolitan Police district.