HC Deb 17 July 1922 vol 156 cc1728-9
95. Colonel WEDGWOOD

asked the Home Secretary whether he will let Emma Goldman come to this country; and why the right of asylum in this country is refused by his Department to this lady?

Mr. SHORTT

I am not prepared to allow Emma Goldman to come to this country as it is considered that her presence here would be undesirable.

Colonel WEDGWOOD

Are we never to get back to the principle that this country is an asylum for people, however extreme their views may be?

Mr. SHORTT

It has never been an asylum for undesirable aliens.

Colonel WEDGWOOD

Has not this country in the past been an asylum to which people expelled from their own country can come, and why is that tradition to be uprooted by the present legislature?

Mr. SHORTT

It has not been uprooted, so long as they are not here to do harm to this country.