§ 6. Sir ALFRED KNOXasked the President of the Board of Trade if he can give an estimate of the number of passengers who cross the English Channel annually; and what proportion of these passengers are British and what proportion are foreigners?
§ 11. Sir J. POWERasked the President of the Board of Trade if he can state the number of British and alien passengers who travelled from British ports to French ports and vice versa during 1928, or during the latest year for which the figures are available?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERAs the reply is somewhat long, I propose, with the permission of my hon. Friends, to-circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Sir A. KNOXCan my right hon. Friend give the approximate number of visitors who go to France every year?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERI could not do that. If the House wished it, I could read the whole answer, but it is a long one, and I think it would be much more intelligible if the House saw it in print.
§ Following is the reply:
§ The following figures show the numbers of passengers between the ports of Dover, Folkestone, Newhaven and Southampton and ports on the French coast, in 1927 and 1928, as compiled from the returns furnished to the Board of Trade by the masters of the ships which carried the passengers.
| — | Passengers from English Channel Ports to French Channel Ports. | Passengers from French Channel ports to English Channel Ports. |
| 1927 | 707,312 | 738,188 |
| 1928 | 742,671 | 759,062 |
§ The returns do not distinguish British passengers from those of other nationalities. The number of passengers of all nationalities from the above-mentioned British ports to all ports on the Continent of Europe was 886,626 in 1927, and the statistics respecting alien passengers, which are prepared by the Home Office, show that in that year 204,119 aliens left those ports for ports on the Continent of Europe. The corresponding particulars of passengers from Continental ports in 1927 are 926,704 of all nationalities and 218,517 aliens. Corresponding figures for alien passengers in 1928 are not yet available.