§ MR. FELL (Great Yarmouth)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he can give particulars of the number of Chinese who landed at Liverpool in 1907; whether they came in emigrant ships and were passed as desirable immigrants by the Emigration Committee under the Alien Act; and if any Chinese were naturalised as British subjects in 1907.
§ MR. GLADSTONEThe numbers of Chinese immigrants landing at Liverpool are so small that they are not separately tabulated in the Annual Reports under the Aliens Act. For the year 1907 they are included in, and I believe form a very small proportion of, the 282 persons of "other nationalities" shown in Table XVII. of the Report for that year. To ascertain the exact numbers would 396 involve a long and laborious search, which I do not feel justified in undertaking. No Chinese appeared before the Immigration Board at Liverpool in 1907. Only one Chinaman, living in London, was naturalised in 1907.
§ MR. FELLAre Chinese who are employed on ships allowed to land without being subject to the provisions of the Aliens Act?
§ * MR. GLADSTONEThey are subject to the usual conditions of the Merchant Shipping Act.