§ Mr. HUNTasked the Home Secretary whether, in view of the fact that Dr. Eason, the senior ophthalmic surgeon to Guy's Hospital stated this month that less than a quarter of the number of aliens who came into this country in 1910 were rejected for eye disease (trachoma) than was the case in 1909, and that this was because the examination was relaxed, he will make the regulations sufficiently strong and the examination so careful that no more aliens shall be permitted to enter this country and spread blindness amongst our own people?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLIt is not the fact that the medical inspection under the Aliens Act has been in any way relaxed in 1910; and Dr. Eason did not say that it had been. He merely inferred that it might be so from the reduction in the number of rejections for trachoma in 1910 as compared with 1909, and he now admits that his inference was wrong. The real reasons for this reduction are, firstly, that in consequence, no doubt, of the rejections in previous years the number of aliens suffering from trachoma who arrived on immigrant ships decreased; and, secondly, that the figures for 1909 were swollen through the arrival in special circumstances of numbers of Armenians and Syrians who were suffering from the disease. The hon. Member will find information on the latter point on page 8 of the Annual Report for 1909 of the Inspector under the Act.