MISS MARIE LLOYD

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 113, 8 November 1913, Page 2

MISS MARIE LLOYD

I HER RECEPTION AT NEW YORK DEPORTATION O&DEKED. . tFroia Our Own. Corte»Bondeat). LONDON, 4th October. Miss Mario Lloyd, tho well-known musio-hall artist, and Mr. Bernard Dillon, tho Engli&h jockey, arrived at New York on the Wliito Star liner Olympic, on Wednesday, and were detained by the immigration,, authorities as " undesirables. ' Yesterday the order was made for their deportation. This decision was reached by Inspectors Brown, Mann and Stewart, of the Board of Immigration, holding a court on Ellis Island, New York's clearing-house for immigrants, on the ground that Miss Marie Lloyd had crossed with a cony panion named Bernard Dillon, their names figuring on the ship's list of passengers as Mr. and Mrs. Dillon. The incident on the pior was brief. The Customs officials tried not .to be offensive. Armed with a cable message from London, one of them asked Miss Lloyd, "Is this man," (indicating Dillon with his forefinger) " your lawful husband ?" Miss Lloyd was at first indignant, but replied, " Not my legal husband." Then tho inspectors declared fckat they had no alternative but to keep them from goLug ashore. They might stay all da-y on tho Olympic, because Ellis Inland was crowded, but the immigration officers would have to deal with their case. Whereupoii Miss Lloyd became hysterical. Her sister Alice, who, with her little daughter, had come to the pier io meet the Olympic, told her not to mind, but to cheer up. Acting on this advice, Miss Lloyd opened her valise, brought out a bottle of champagn6, and having obtained assistance in opening it, fortified herself with a glass. She then reascended the gang plank to the Olympic, where in the saloon on the promenade deck she spent the day. HEARING IN CAMEBA. The case was heard in camera, not even the defendants' counsel being permitted to entor the Court room. According to tho regular procedure of Ellis Island, the minutes taken this morning will bo reviewed by the Acting Commissioner, Mr. Alt, who will lorward them, with his recommendation, to tho Secretary of Labour, Mr. Wilson, at Washington. Mr. Wilson will then render his decision, from which counsel for the defence may appeal. The procedure generally occupies one week, during which time Dillon and Miss Lloyd will be detained at Ellis Island, but will be allowed to see their friends, and be lodged in comfortable quarters. Miss Lloyd has engaged four prominent New York lawyers to defend her, the chief of whom is Mr. Moses H. Grossman, who at one 4ime acted for Harry K. Thaw. Mr. Grossman declares that he will cite the case of a certain vaudeville artist who entered America last May in similar circumstances. This woman, said Mr. Grossman, was allowed to enter the United States under bond and a promise to return as soon as her vaudeville contracts in the United States were fulfilled. Mr. Grossman also declared that he would lay emphasis on the fact that Mt&s Lloyd and Dillon were engaged to be married, and that they intended to be united as soon as Mr. Alec Hurley, Miss Lloyd's husband, had secured' an absolute divorce in England. Miss, Lloyd, who was much upsot at the turn of events, made a statement through her counsel to the effect that her English friends, knowing all the circumstances, regarded Dillpn and herself as married people. They understood one another, and were perfectly happy, and had it not been for tho intervention of the King's Proctor they would now have been Mr. and Mrs. Dillon in reality as well as in name. Her engagement in America was to make forty appearances at £300 per week. HER RELEASE— BOND OF £300. Now, however, the Department of Labour at Washington has issued instructions for her release from Ellis Island. Both Miss Lloyd and Mi. Dillon are required to furnish a bond of £300 to return to England on Ist March, 1914. Miss Lloyd left Ellis Island in a, state of indignation. She had been informed unomeially in the course of the afternoon that the probabilities wore that she would be allowed to fulfil her contract, but that several days must elapse before a. decision could be leached. ''I will not remain another day in this horrible island," -she instantly deolared, giving orders to her maid to pack up her belongings. Accompanied by her sister and Mr. Dillon, she placed j herself under the escort of an inspector and boarded a small steamer bound for the mainland. The boat was crowded with six hundred immigrants who had paaeed the Board of Inspection, and with employees of the Immigration Department who were returning to their homes after their day's work. To a press representative she declared : "I shall never appear again before the American public, no matter what inducements are offered to me. I came as a^performcr go this so-called free country, and they have treated me in a cowardly manner, exposing my parsonal affairs to the whole world. 1 have withdrawn my appeal against ths verdict of tho Immigration authorities, ! for I do not wish to remain a single day longer than necessary in a country which has treated me as I have been treated." The party then returned to the e.s. Olympic and engaged a suite of firstclass cabins for the return voyage. Later in the day, Mr. G-rossmann, tho lawyer, who secured the release of Miss Lloyd, interviewed his client and announced that Miss Lloyd had changed her mind and would, after all, stay in America. The Board of Immigration issued the order for her deportation on tho ground that she was living with a man who was not her husband. A similar order was issued against Bernard Dillon, the ex jockey, who arrived with her in the Olympic. The charge against Dilloh was under the White Slave Aofc of America of bringing a woman who is apt his wife. Miss Lloyd was included in the charge as a "passive agent." So far as the artist'if personal comfort is/ concerned, tho condolences of friends 'were somewhat misplaced. They pic\ tured her as suffering great discomfort through being quartered among all sorts of immigrants who were awaiting permission to enter the country. .-But though there is no first-class for aliens adjudged undesirable and detained on Ellis Island pending deportation, Miss Marie Lloyd was not forced to sleep in. a hammock beside n dozen other women. Recognising tho (special character of her case the Commissioner of Immigration allotted her a separate sleeping apartment. ' She took her meals one day in the immigrants' restaurant »nd found the quality of the food good, though simple.