§ Colonel IVOR PHILIPPSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the maintenance of alien lunatics, deported from foreign countries and landed at Southampton at the request of shipping companies, has to be paid out of the common fund of the Southampton Union pending transfer back to their native country; and whether he will take the necessary steps to amend The Aliens Act, 1905, so that the charge does not fall upon the ratepayers of the town?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLI am aware that Southampton is liable to charges such as those indicated in the first paragraph of the question; but this liability is not a consequence of the Aliens Act, and I doubt whether it can he altered by an 1609W amendment of that Act. It is rather, I think, one of the disadvantages which must be balanced against the many advantages of being a great seaport.