ABSTRACT
The Aliens Act was one of the last acts passed by the Conservative government which lost by a landslide to the Liberal Party in the January 1906 election. The 1905 Aliens Act prevented the entry of foreign-born steerage-class passengers identified as destitute which had a discernible impact on working-class arrivals. The Aliens Restriction Act was passed on August 5, 1914, the day after Britain’s declaration of war on Germany, but had been years in the making. The Aliens Restriction Act 1914 was passed in a single day with barely a pause for discussion in parliament. The Act gave executive powers to make Orders in Council to meet emergency needs regarding detention, expulsion, residence and registration of aliens without further recourse to parliament. The Aliens Restriction of November 1914 designated much of Britain’s coastline as a “prohibited area” where no foreigners could be settled.
