§ 26. Mr. Sydney Silvermanasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department why he has refused a visa to Mr. and Mrs. Kisiel, now permanently resident in Israel, to enable them to visit their 12 year old son who is at school in this country and whom they have not seen for several years.
§ Mr. EdeThe son of Mr. and Mrs. Kisiel came to this country from Poland in April, 1950, to visit his uncle for six months. His uncle sent him to a boarding school and towards the end of the six months sought and received permission for him to remain here to attend the school for a further year. The boy's parents moved from Poland to Israel in November, 1950. Their applications for visas to come here for a visit were refused 2501 because it was believed that their real object was to settle in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. SilvermanDoes my right hon. Friend agree that Mr. and Mrs. Kisiel have applied for naturalisation in Israel, and that Mr. Kisiel has offered the fullest possible guarantees that, if this natural desire of the parents to come here to visit their son is granted, there will be no application of any kind for any increase of the normal residence visa? Will my right hon. Friend say what guarantees he would accept before acceding to this very natural desire and not penalise people for things done by others over whom they have no control of any kind?
§ Mr. EdeThe father in this case has only been in Israel since November, 1950. I have had inquiries made in Tel Aviv and I am told that he has not yet established himself there in his profession. When he has been there a little longer and has become established, so that I can feel that there is a reasonable prospect of it being to his advantage to go back to Israel, I should be prepared very favourably to consider an application for a visa.
§ Mr. SilvermanWould my right hon. Friend bear in mind that he said in his original answer that he had reason to believe that there was the intention of remaining here? Has not my right hon. Friend been offered, both by the applicants and by their friends here, the fullest possible guarantees to the contrary?
§ Mr. EdeI have had a very unfortunate experience in trying to get these guarantees honoured when the time comes, and appeals are then made to me on all sorts of sympathetic grounds. I think the answer I gave in reply to the first supplementary question is an indication that as soon as I can really feel sure that it will be to this man's interests to go back to Israel I shall be quite willing to consider admitting him.
§ 27. Mr. S. Silvermanasked the Secretar of State for the Home Department why he has refused a Home Office certificate of identity to Mr. Julian Likierman who left Poland nearly 30 years ago, who has no intention of returning there, whose passport has expired, who is normally resident in this country, who is a director of an important company doing export business of great value to the country, 2502 and who requires such a certificate to facilitate his journeys abroad in the interests of that export trade.
§ Mr. EdeMy Department issues documents of identity for travel only to aliens who cannot obtain a valid foreign passport. Mr. Likierman has had his Polish passport renewed by the Polish authorities in 1947 and 1948, and I have no reason to suppose that he could not have it renewed again.
§ Mr. SilvermanDoes my right hon. Friend realise that this gentleman left Poland over 30 years ago, when Poland was merely a geographical expression and not a sovereign State at all; that he has never been back there since; that his application for a passport in 1947 and 1948 was when he was a refugee in Roumania, and when it was his only possible means of coming out of that country; that all those facts were known to my right hon. Friend when his visa was granted to him here; and that for him to apply now for a renewal of his Polish passport would be to embarrass him considerably in his declared intention of permanent residence here?
§ Mr. EdeThis gentleman first came to the United Kingdom on 13th March, 1947, from Bucharest. Therefore, he is not a long-established resident in this country. He is a Polish citizen, and I think that if he wants to travel about the world, while he can get a Polish passport that should be the document on which he should travel.
§ Mr. SilvermanI beg to give notice that I shall take an early opportunity of raising the matters on both Question No. 26 and Question No. 27 at a suitable opportunity.
§ 33. Mr. S. O. Daviesasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what were his reasons for refusing Professor Joliot-Curie permission to enter this country for the purpose of attending in the interests of world peace a meeting convened for that purpose.
§ Mr. EdeI decided that it would not be in the public interest to allow Professor Joliot-Curie to come to this country to attend the conference in London on 9th and 10th June, organised by the so-called British Peace Committee. The British Peace Committee is an integral part of 2503 the Communist-dominated World Peace Movement, which is recognised as an instrument of Soviet foreign policy, designed to secure peace on Soviet terms.
§ Mr. DaviesIn view of the fiction that has passed as an answer to the Question I put down on the Order Paper, I wish to give notice that I shall raise this matter at the first opportunity.