§ 49. Mr. PENNEFATHERasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if any statistics, are available to show the number of aliens in the United Kingdom or in any part of it who claim to be subjects of neutral countries but who have not conclusively established the truth of such claims; if no such statistics are available, will he say how a correct statement can be made of the number of uninterned alien enemies there are in this country; and if he has given, or will give, instructions that all aliens who may reasonably be suspected of being of enemy birth and who have not conclusively proved that they are neutral subjects shall be interned until their neutral nationality is proved beyond doubt?
Mr. SAMUELThe answer to the first and third parts of the question is in the negative. As regards the second part, the figures which have been given as to uninterned alien enemies are not and could not properly be arrived at by any process of subtraction such as that suggested. They give the results of the enforcement of the law requiring all alien enemies to register and all persons as to whose nationality any question arises to prove that they are what they claim to be.