asked the Minister for External Affairs whether his attention has been called to the fact that passengers embarking on vessels of the Cunard-Anchor line at Moville are obliged to undergo a very much stricter medical examination and inspection than those embarking at Glasgow and Greenock; whether the United States Immigration Regulations discriminate between passengers coming from different countries; whether these regulations as to medical inspection should be applied to American citizens, and whether, in view of the fact that the character of this examination may deter Americans from visiting the Saorstát, he will instruct the Saorstát representatives in Washington and New York to approach the companies concerned with regard to this matter.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - EMIGRATION—(MEDICAL INSPECTION).
The Steamship Companies as well as being heavily fined in each instance are obliged by the United States Government to bring back to the port of departure, at their own expense, all immigrants suffering from disease or ill-health who have been carried on their vessels to American ports. The examination is therefore necessarily a strict one, and if the character of the examination varies from one port to another it arises only from the varying interpretations put on their instructions by the doctors employed.
American citizens, for whom the companies have no particular responsibility, are either examined cursorily or not examined at all, and consequently the examination is not such as would deter Americans from visiting this country.
Is the Minister aware that American citizens are being put through exactly the same examination as anybody else, and that on one occasion after two immigrants' hair was examined with a comb the same comb, without being cleaned, was put through the hair of an American lady? And is he aware that at Glasgow people simply walk on the boat showing a card; while at Moville the examination is of a particularly drastic character?
I am not aware of the facts and, even if I accept them as facts, I think it comes from the doctors not quite understanding what the regulations are.
If I send the Minister information on this matter will he inform the doctors?
I will take some steps. Possibly the doctors read the papers and, if so, they will learn what the Deputy has said.