§ 72. Mr. KINGasked the Home Secretary why the police are threatening to deport Jaques Hasenburg, of Mile End, to Russia, on 1st August; whether an order for his deportation has been signed; and whether he will be allowed to remain and appear before the tribunals which will be set up to consider such cases?
Mr. SAMUELThe police are not threatening to deport Hasenburg, and no order for his deportation has been made. His case is one of those to which I referred in my answer to the hon. Member on the 19th instant. Of his own free will he applied for and obtained a permit to enable him to return to Russia for military service. The Russian authorities would have agreed to his remaining here and serving in the British Army, but he preferred to return. A passage to Russia via Archangel was accordingly arranged for him, and he was instructed by the police that he should proceed to Liverpool on the 1st instant.
§ Mr. KINGWhy was not someone sent to communicate with him in a language which he understood, as he does not understand English properly?
§ 76. Mr. KINGasked the Home Secretary whether he can now explain the past treatment and present position of Charles Sarno, a Russian political refugee, who has resided several years in England before the War, but is now threatened with deportation to Russia?
Mr. SAMUELThe hon. Member appears to be misinformed as to the facts of this case. It is not true that Sarno resided several years in England before the War. According to his own statements he left Russia at the age of sixteen for the United States, where he spent five years, and then returned to Russia for eighteen months. Subsequently, he travelled through various countries, spending a few months in London some years ago, and returning here in April, 1914. I am satisfied that the claim that he is a political refugee who has sought asylum in this country is quite unfounded. He is a most undesirable character, and he has been assisting to keep a house which was the resort of alien thieves, bullies and prostitutes. Further, the police have good reason to believe that he not only lives on immoral earnings, but has attempted to procure women to become prostitutes. Evidence in such cases, sufficient to ensure a conviction in Court, is often most difficult to obtain, and in present circumstances, when the police are too fully occupied with War duties to watch such a man continuously, he becomes a danger to the community; I therefore decided that Sarno should not be allowed to remain 2074 here, and ordered his deportation. In a case of this kind the only country to which a man can be deported is his own. No other would receive him. This case has no connection whatever with the proposals for the enlistment of Russian subjects in the British Army, which are not yet in operation.
§ Mr. KINGIf this man was such a notorious criminal, why could he not be brought before a Court of Law, and are we to expect that where a case will give any trouble to the police the Home Secretary is simply going to deport people or put them into prison without any trial whatsoever?
Mr. SAMUELI have already answered by anticipation the first part of the hon. Member's supplementary question. This right of deportation is one which ought certainly to be very sparingly used, and only in cases where it is quite clear that the man is a most undesirable character, and of a class the watching and regulating of which imposes an undue strain upon our police at the present time.