§ 4. Colonel WEDGWOODasked the First Lord of the Admiralty if he will say how many passports have been issued to women to cross the Atlantic westward by the Inter-Departmental Passport Committee during the months of March, April, and May of this year; whether any such passports have been issued without the Inter-Departmental Committee being consulted; if so, how many; whether and, it so, how the case of Miss E. Humphreys, of Stoke-on-Trent, was so considered; and can it be reconsidered?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. Balfour)My right hon. Friend has asked me to answer this question. Irrespective of the wives and dependants of Canadian soldiers, whose repatriation is arranged by the Canadian authorities by special vessels, the number of cases of urgent necessity in which passports have been granted to women to cross the Atlantic from this country is as follows: Sixteen in March, sixteen in April, and twenty-two in May. The Inter-Departmental Committee is consulted before any such passports are granted. It has not been found possible to trace the case of Miss Humphreys, but if the hon. Member will supply fuller particulars it will be looked into.