§ 18 and 23. Mr. KINGasked the Home Secretary (1) whether, in arrangements made for enlisting in the armies of the Allies those friendly aliens within the realm of Britain, he has considered the difference of status between those ordinarily resident in Great Britain and those who have come to reside here since the War began; whether a similar exception will be made in the case of the former to that exception granted by the Military Service Acts to those British subjects who are ordinarily resident outside Great Britain; and (2) whether a number of Russian Jews in this country are refugees from Belgium and France whom the invasion of those lands by Germany drove to these shores; that these persons have been waiting for nearly two years for the time when the deliverance of their homes from the German tyranny would allow their return to Belgium and France; and whether, in view of these persons being engaged here mostly in useful employment, he will exempt them from deportation to Russia, where they have no homes and where they fear that pogroms and penalties would await them?
Mr. SAMUELThe case of these men will receive the same consideration as that of other Russian subjects resident in the United Kingdom.