asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department why a Swiss, M. Luigi Cei, of Davos Platz, was refused entry into this country at Folkestone on 27th April; and why he was not allowed to telephone his prospective hostess, living near Andover; this refusal causing that lady needless anxiety and waste of time.

This alien is an Italian who had been working in Switzerland as a ski-ing instructor. He had only a single ticket and he admitted that his real purpose in coming to the United Kingdom was to take employment. He had no Ministry of Labour permit and he was refused leave to land. He did not ask to be allowed to get in touch with his prospective hostess. If he had done so permission would have been readily given.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that I am informed that this man was not allowed to telephone his friends? Would the right hon. Gentleman issue instructions to ensure that in future there can be no repetition of what amounts to either a genuine misunderstanding or quite intolerable officiousness on the part of an official?

No, Sir. I have inquired very carefully into this case and my information is that this man did not ask to telephone. Had he done so the immigration officer, according to instructions, would have allowed him to telephone. If such a person has no money with which to telephone or if he does not understand the British telephone system the official will telephone for him. May I say, as one who, on occasion, has tried to telephone abroad that it is sometimes difficult to understand the telephone system of another country, particularly when one has been accustomed to so efficient a system as the British system?

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the number of aliens who have received British nationality for each year since the war; and the monthly figures since 1st January, 1950.

Since the end of the war 50,062 certificates of naturalisation have been granted. I will, with permission, circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT the annual and monthly figures for which the hon. Member asks.

What steps has the right hon. Gentleman taken to see that none of these people who are naturalised are undesirable and that none of them are Communist agents?

The hon. Member only asked for the figures.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will give permission to General Zivcovic and 37 other Yugoslav generals, at present classed as displaced persons at Schloss Varlar in the British zone, to come to this country.

As I informed the House on 4th May, His Majesty's Government have undertaken to admit up to 2,000 displaced persons and refugees now in the care of the International Refugee Organisation in Germany and Austria for whom accommodation and maintenance can be provided by relatives, friends or voluntary organisations. Applications may be made on behalf of the generals to whom the hon. Member refers, but in selecting the limited number who can be admitted under the scheme it is proposed to give priority to persons with relatives in the United Kingdom and to children.

Is the Home Secretary aware that, whereas from one point of view one appreciates his principle, there is a very large number of people in this modern world, people of integrity and ability, who are unable to play any part in the life of their own natural country or in any other country? Will he not agree that the fact that they have no friends or relatives is surely a reason not for not giving them consideration but for giving them consideration?

The unfortunate thing is that in the world at the present time there are, I venture to say, millions of such people. If I did not exercise some discrimination about them it would only be the carrying capacity of ships and aeroplanes that would determine the number of people who applied for permission to come to this country. It is a matter of grief to me that I cannot admit all the people who would like to come, but I have to discriminate. The hon. Gentleman can rest assured that, as far as these men are concerned, I will exercise as much sympathy as the interest of this country will allow.

Will the Home Secretary perhaps give special consideration to these cases, as these senior officers were taken prisoners by the Germans when, with great gallantry, they led the Yugoslavs early in the war? Is it not awful that such distinguished men should spend the rest of their lives on the German dole?

I hope I have indicated that I will examine these cases with sympathy. I do not deprecate the special pleading but very similar cases can be put up, I regret to say, for thousands of equally deserving persons on the Continent of Europe.