§ 24. Captain Cunningham-Reidasked the Home Secretary whether, in spite of the Home Office regulation that visas to enter this country are only granted to foreigners in those cases where our direct national interest justifies such a course, he will reconsider on humanitarian grounds the case of the two Jewish women desiring to escape to this country about which the honourable Member for St. Marylebone wrote to him on 28th September last?
§ Mr. H. MorrisonI do not know on what principle I could justify the selection for preferential treatment of the two ladies to whom the hon. and gallant Member refers who were born in Salonica, became French by naturalisation and have lived in France for over 20 years.
§ Captain Cunningham-ReidWhy exclude these two unfortunate Jewesses and make an exception in the case of the wife of a traitor? I am referring to Princess Olga of Yugoslavia. May I have an answer to that question?
Miss RathboneIs the Home Secretary aware that there are scores of cases where the obtaining of a visa to this country would enable refugees to escape to a neutral country, their only hope of rescue? Can he hold out no hope of some alteration in his rigid resolution on visas to the United Kingdom?
§ Mr. MorrisonI am afraid I cannot accept the hon. Lady's statement as fact, but in any case it is a separate question.
Miss RathboneWould not the right hon. Gentleman at least consider the numerous cases that I could submit to him?