§ MR. FELL (Great Yarmouth)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been called to the recent order for the deportation of an alien who was leaving 671 his children behind in this country to be supported out of the rates; and whether he proposes to take any steps, by legislation or otherwise, to render possible the deportation of the alien with his wife and children to the country from which he came.
§ MR. GLADSTONEI presume the hon. Member refers to the case of an alien named Schafer, as to which reports have recently appeared in the newspapers. If so, I think he is not in full possession of the facts. The alien's wife is dead, and I do not propose to take any steps with a view to expelling from the United Kingdom with this alien his two children who are British subjects, and who were the victims of the neglect and ill-treatment which led to his sentence of nine months imprisonment. Before, however, making an expulsion order against this man, I arranged with the director of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, who had prosecuted the man, that he would undertake the responsibility of making provision for the children; and I caused the Marylebone Board of Guardians, who had charge of the children during their father's imprisonment, to be informed of this. It is incorrect, therefore, to say that they are left to be supported out of the rates.