§ 16. Mr. DAYasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the number of passports granted by Great Britain for the 12 months ended to the last convenient date to ladies employed in the theatrical and vaudeville professions for the purpose of accepting engagements abroad; and what investigations are made as to the bona fides of their employment before these passports are issued?
§ Viscount CRANBORNEI regret that the information desired in the first part of the hon. Member's question, which would entail the examination of some 200,000 applications, is not available. As regards the second part, in all cases in which applicants for passports declare the purpose of their journey to be that of taking up theatrical employment special precautions are taken as regards the conditions and bona fides of the employment and the contracts are referred to one of the recognised theatrical associations for examination. In the few cases which occur in which the association consulted find themselves unable to make a recommendation, further inquiries are made either through the police authorities in this country or from the British Consular Representative at the place to which the applicant proposes to travel. Juvenile 11 artistes under the age of 18 are also required to produce a magistrate's licence to perform abroad.
§ Mr. DAYIs the Minister aware that lately several of these artistes have been lured out to lucrative engagements and that when they arrived at their destination they have found that there were no engagements available and they were offered positions in houses of ill-repute?
§ Viscount CRANBORNEI understand that the utmost care is taken, and if the hon. Member has any specific cases that he wants to bring forward and he will let me have particulars, I will go into them.