HC Deb 04 April 1951 vol 486 cc179-80
9. Mr. Driberg

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will investigate the circumstances in which Mr. Norman Manley, K.C., a member of the Jamaican House of Representatives, was recently detained on Ellis Island by the United States immigration authorities; and what representation he has addressed to the United States Government on this matter.

Mr. H. Morrison

I have been informed by His Majesty's Consul-General at New York that Mr. Manley was detained for about three hours only, and I do not propose to take any action.

Mr. Driberg

Is it not rather an extraordinary thing that this distinguished Commonwealth statesman should be subject to these indignities on his way back from appearing before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the very day after he had dined in this House with the Secretary of State for the Colonies? Should my right hon. Friend not take some steps to see that British subjects, and members of Legislative Assemblies, are not subjected to these indignities?

Mr. Morrison

Naturally, I am sorry about it but I think that for a delay of three hours—which, even so, I regret—my hon. Friend is making rather excessively high weather about it. I was not detained in New York for three hours, but I once had a difficult reception and I put up with it like a sportsman.

Mr. Driberg

Is my right hon. Friend aware that Mr. Manley has described the conditions of his detention as almost like being in prison?