HC Deb 20 September 1939 vol 351 c969W
Mr. White

asked the Home Secretary how it is proposed to constitute the tribunals which are to deal with the status of aliens?

Sir J. Anderson

I have, in consultation with the Lord Chancellor, been able to secure the assistance of nearly a hundred men with legal experience to review all cases of Germans and Austrians who are in this country. Each of these gentlemen will sit as a tribunal to review all cases in the area assigned to him. In London there will be several tribunals for areas in which there are large numbers of Germans and Austrians. No tribunal will have more than about 500 cases to examine, and it will therefore be possible to complete the review rapidly.

The police will make arrangements for seeing that particulars of each case are brought before the tribunal. The Voluntary Committees which have been befriending refugees will assist the tribunals by giving the information which they have about individual aliens, and it has been arranged with the Refugee Joint Consultative Committee that they will send to each tribunal an accredited representative to act as a liaison officer who will obtain and present this information.