That the immigration of destitute and undesirable aliens takes place on a large and increasing scale, is a fact placed beyond the reach of controversy or denial. The Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the subject, reported that the immigration of aliens into this country had been greater since the date of the last Census (1881) than at any recent period of our history; an opinion which they arrived at from the evidence of a number of eminent authorities. Mr. John Burnett, Labour Correspondent of the Board of Trade, who was specially deputed in August 1887 to make inquiries into the Sweating System in the East End of London, reported that matters were much worse there of late years, because of "the enormous influx of pauper foreigners," an opinion which he arrived at from his own personal observation, and from the statements of the people themselves. Mr. Burnett's report was corroborated in its main features by Dr. Ogle, whose work it is to prepare the statistical part of the Census, and whose opinion on all such matters stands deservedly high.
Let us also take the opinion of people who have lived in the invaded districts, and who can therefore speak from practical experience. Mr. Henry Dejonge, a cigar-maker, who had lived in the East End for fifty years, said before the Immigration Committee:—"The increase has taken place since the Russian War of 1856. Since then it has been gradual, but sure; there has been a very large increase the last eight years. … In a certain street in Whitechapel the shops are mostly kept by foreigners. In Wentworth Street, out of eighty-five shops, there are forty-eight in the hands of Russian and Polish Jews." Mr. Simmons, a dress-trimming maker, said that he was born in Spitalfields, and could date back in his recollection, "and where there were then two Jews, there are forty now, or even more—say sixty. I know a street which when I was a boy there was not a Jew in, and now it is completely full of them." The agent to the Whitechapel Committee of the Charity Organization Society (Mr. Thurston) was of opinion that the population in the district of Whitechapel would be half foreign and half British. "Some of the streets that were occupied by British workpeople have been entirely cleared, and are now occupied by Jews." The Rev. H. A. Mason, Vicar of All Saints, Stepney, a well-known and devoted clergyman, who has laboured for the last eighteen years among the lowest of the London poor, reckons that there has been an increase of 1000 foreign Jews in his parish during the last seven years, and this at the sacrifice of the British population. He also testified to the ill-feeling existing between them and the British part of the population who found themselves being thus ousted. The Bishop of Bedford, Dr. Billing, referring to Spitalfields, where he had laboured for twenty years, said:—"I know that during the last four years whole streets have become entirely occupied by Jews, foreign Jews, where there was not a Jew before." The Report of the Committee of Guardians of the Whitechapel Union stated in 1887:—"There can be no doubt that the number of foreign residents—chiefly very poor—in the Whitechapel Union and adjacent districts, is largely on the increase, and that each year sees some new locality, or localities, invaded by the foreigner and abandoned by the English poor. No statistics are needed in support of this statement, since it is obvious to every one who knows the East End. It is not a mere redistribution of poor, and the substitution of one class for another in a certain locality; it is the immigration into the district of a class of foreign poor, who seem heretofore to have existed on the mere border-land of civilization, who are content with any shelter, and to share that shelter with as many of their class as can be crowded into it."
A mass of similar evidence might be given by experts whose opinions are above contradiction or cavil. But it is unnecessary to multiply witnesses. A visit to East London will give one the best of all possible evidence—that of one's own eyes. In Whitechapel, the increase during the last ten years has been enormous. Whole streets are now filled with foreign Jews, notably Old Montague Street, Chicksand Street, Booth Street, Hanbury Street, and the teeming courts and alleys adjoining. It is easy to imagine oneself to be in a foreign city. Strange habits and customs, and foreign faces surround one; and a foreign language is heard on every side. There are multitudes of little eating-houses with Hebrew letters on the windows, signifying thus "Kosher"—meat prepared in the Jewish fashion—is there supplied. There are foreign Jewish tradesmen who drive a thriving trade in catering to the peculiar wants of this foreign population, supplying every need, even down to "smoked beef and sausages from Warsaw," a delicacy which the Polish and Russian Jew especially affects. There is even a foreign newspaper half printed in "Yiddish," and the sentiments expressed therein are often of the most dangerous order. On the walls and other available spaces, one sees advertisements in Yiddish, and enterprising tradesmen go in for Yiddish handbills. There are Yiddish clubs and gambling-hells, and little Jewish lodging-houses without end. In fact everywhere the signs of this foreign invasion are dominant, to the complete—or almost complete—exclusion of the English element. That particular quarter of London is like the Ghetto of a continental city.
The Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police stated in his last Report that "a growing number of such passengers (viz. destitute foreigners) arrive in London, chiefly on board vessels running under the German flag." After noticing that by one line plying between Hamburg and Tilbury, no less than 4000 such passengers, 80 per cent. of whom appeared to be quite destitute, arrived in 1890, as compared with 2390 in 1889, the Chief Commissioner notices that "from 4000 to 5000 additional arrived in London in 1890," and adds, "Though some of these only pass through London on their way to America, it may be taken that the majority of them settle there." His conclusion is:—"The police reports unanimously state that there has been a marked increase of late in the number of arrivals in this country." This report is dated 17th January, 1891.
The increase is by no means confined to London alone. The Chief Constable at Manchester reported (29th December, 1890), as the result of inquiries of several shopkeepers and housekeepers from Poland and Russia who have resided in Manchester for some years, that "all are unanimously of opinion that the numbers of their countrymen who have immigrated into the city have increased during the last few months." He reports farther (10th January, 1891), "that there are said to be 15,000 to 16,000 Jews in Manchester, and of their number it has been estimated that at least 70 per cent. are said to be Russian Poles. No correct information can be obtained as to the proportionate number of the whole who are in destitute circumstances, or of the total increase in the numbers of these classes which has actually taken place in the year 1890; but there can be no doubt that the Jewish people have very largely increased in numbers in this city during the last few years."
The Liverpool Chief Constable reported (January 1891):—"There is no doubt, as far as can be ascertained, that the immigration of destitute Polish and Russian Jews into this city has somewhat increased during the past twelve months." The Chief Constable at Glasgow reports, on the authority of the honorary treasurer of the Jewish Board of Guardians, that about 200 poor Polish immigrants arrive in that city yearly. There are a good many foreign Jews settled in Glasgow.
In Leeds, the Chief Constable reported (December 1890), that there is a continuous immigration of destitute aliens—Polish and Russian Jews. A member of the Jewish Board of Guardians informed him "that the number of Jewish immigrants arriving in Leeds during the last twelve months would, in his opinion, be about 2000 persons"; but on this there appears to be a difference of opinion.
Leeds is a place which calls for more than a mere passing notice, since it is probably more directly interested in the question of alien immigration than any other provincial town in England. The incoming tide flows on unchecked, and helps to swell the poorer population of Leeds to an alarming extent. In a Report of the Sweating System at Leeds, Mr. Burnett, Labour Correspondent to the Board of Trade, wrote:—"As elsewhere these people (the Jews) may be almost said to form a foreign colony in the heart of an English town, and Leeds has now its Jewish quarter just as the East End of London has. They have settled down in a district called the Leylands, and they have taken such complete possession of it, that in the Board School of the locality, 75 per cent. of the children are Jews. The streets in the Leylands are beginning to assume distinctly foreign characteristics. The names above the shops are foreign, and the notices in the windows are printed in Hebrew characters. The words spoken are unintelligible to English ears, and about the race of the children in the streets and the people at the doors