COLD WELCOME

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 2, 4 January 1932, Page 3

COLD WELCOME

ENTERING AMERICA

BULLIED IMMIGRANTS

AT ELLIS ISLAND

The Majestic is docked at the dou-ble-storied, roofed-in -wharf oftlie JPFhite Star Line. Countless gangways give access to the Continent of America •—gangways issuing from holes, in the fehip's vast hull or chopping steeply from her eleeksy gangways whoso purpose is .hidden in tho distant obscurity of .her stern. Down mechanical beltconveyors, like articles being turned out; from a factory, cabin trunks pass endJessly. The first-class passengeis walk ashore fendeT an awning, as though they were flttonding a fashionable wedding. An English nobleman is greeted by fussy sSankoe reporters. Then comes Dawcs, returned from weighty ambassadorial ifiuties, and tho reporters double their toumber and become doubly busy and fussy. We -ivatch from tho forward ■well-deck and notice that American por Jers and labourers wear gloves says a Jrriter in tha "Cape Times." "We are a bunch of Swedes, Lithuanians, Poles, Greeks, Italians, or what iyou will. Huge peasant women swathed in shawls, thin hollow-eyed women with or without baby, men inknitted caps and blue canvas trousers, aien ; in ■ curly black veloui hats and curly black mustachios. Because wo travel third class and in%ehd to .stay i'or an indefinite time with no fixed plans we arc not to be turned loose in the United States to become bootleggers, gangsters, and tramps, but are to-morrow to be the guests of tho Federal Government - at Ellis Island. . The- scrutiny of immigrants, even In prosperous times, is elaborate and impressive. In your homo town your chief of police, doctor, tinker, tailor, and the rest must testify to your ■worthiness as their capacity and conscience allow. In Washington are designed forms from "whose profusion of tabulations emerge impolite suspicions. Are you an anarchist? A polygamist? It is so hard to say with certainty—man is all ductless glands and conditioned xeflexes and exposed to-strango urges and emotions. SHIP'S RESPONSIBILITIES. '..The shipping company wants,to discover a lot too, for if you are- not admitted you will be thrown back on to The company's hands to be shipped elsewhere and will tako up space and eat food. - Every day of the voyage"there had been a personal inspection or an overhauling of our' acreage of documents. Before embarking we were vaccinated. Meanwhile it makes no' diffcr«nce,to the bootleggers, gangsters, and .tramps.- . - - ~ I grow tired of watching friends meeting friends "and following them .■with my eyes as they walk-off gay and" *ree, and I turn to lose myself in the p.s. Majestic. - -Tn the", immense halls "and carpeted corridors, past the palm trees and life-, size statues from which the electric lamps sprout, beneath the dazzling candelabra- and high ceilings where-- the eh erubinv flutter liko bloated butterflies, there is distraction but hardly, comfort. The Mzam of Hyderabad might consider th:s, I reflect in the manner of an estate agent, and in this pillared chamber ornamented with gold should be Nubian'slaves, and Nero reclining in his prandial couch there beside the inlaid grand piano. I continue like Potronius to meditate on Boman feasts, and make my way back to the chamber -walled by the painted plating of the * ship's- bows where the White Star' Company, with characteristic consideration for tastes, is serving spaghetti, ''frankfurter' sausages and, Sauerkraut, Hungarian "gou'Jash, 'and.ro.ast. peef. $ut the biir me ,©f red .wine is no longer there. ■ , WONDERFUL INTERPRETER. The * with*: whom I have teen sleeping 'and who adds the comment,- <<y e ssir!>' to all his-own statements hasjaeen allowed to land, for he r has-beeil-.ili-the'States before. The one-eyed Italian ; who fancies garlic and black cheroots and with whom I also Bleep has not landed. So I spend the" first half of the. night on deck with the interpreter, whom I find hanging tircdly over a rail. - He is the sole channel of communication betwen the White Star Company and a medley qf post-war Europe It is he to whom! th 9 old Russian Jew m a U tSt + .cxP labl ti^ he can on-no account eat, the ham which has been set before him; it is he who-must hear about all the baggage lost at Cherbourg: it is he ■who settles international disputes He M a perambulating and perspiring League of Nations. ' r h When the Rumanian woman is jroinjr to be. sick again he can translate her' SOS calls, and when little Josef is lost the interpreter1 is the obvious of- _ fieial to whom the distracted parent must turn. He bears the inevitable burden of the One Who Understands .tZ 6 f 6 j °mCd by a firat-class deck steward, a marvellously handsome .- young man. Before we left Southampton ho had already formed an at- . tachment here in the forecastle with a plump, golden-haired Cockney girl But when the" voyage started and'as long as it continued sho was sick. Nearly ~ everybody in the forecasttle was sick- . when she pitches the ends of a largo liner move rapidly through space It - was much worse than on a Chauncl steamer.

LIGHTS AND STARS,' \ After dark we notice how the odd' lighted windows of distant skysciapcrs mingle ,with and are scarcely distin"-' . .gukhable from the stars. ". Early the morning we are lined .. up on deck with our assortment of battered suitcases,'tin boxes and coloured bundles. The heaviest baggage - waits on the dock, but anything that is .. not positively unmanageable we have to carry with us. i,. Preceding me is a tiny Italian woman, not nearly as high as my shoulder, and with her as ever are her .two brown babies,-one falling around _ her feet and the other asleep in a rickety perambulator. Near me also fro ""two young Germans ,who are dressed in tweeds and are so nearly alike that only the difference between skirt and trousers indicates tliat they aro boy and girl. They know hardly any English, but they are happy . young adventurers and have quick, un- . troubled eyes and a keen understanding a^ always know what they want and wliat is wanted of them. Behind them looms a Swede. a great gorilla of a felloivj muscles bulge all : ovcr him, but in his eyes aro atupiditv and fear. There aro many Slavs and Slovaks, eternally stolid -and' gloomy. Most of "them had converged at Cher- , - bpnrg, where they had bobbed about on a lighter out on the windy bay for five hours before the ship arrived. "At the word of command we shamble ■down::tto gangway liko a band of con- • v l? ts, excepting the little Italian woman, who with her tin box'and pram and babies negotiates the passage in a 'iwift dexterous'insh. •Wo have said goodbye to the good humour of the Aip'a crew ana ar? In tho hands of - American Customs and Immigration of- ' ieera. "Ilaven't you gotto» a tongueV ■tiquts the first official we meet. And i when " tho foreigner' who is gaping at

shouts, "Quit that!" It is more or less like that all the time. EXAMINATION. My luggage is examined on the docks by a negro in gold-rimmed spectacles. Superciliously ho stirs up my clothes, scarcely looking.as Uo stirs, and then hei passes on. When ho has chalked the tin box of the little Italian woman he sees the covered bundle in the pram and prods _ it. The little Italian woman turns on him with such sudden arn^ bellicose fury that be starts back abashed and lets sleepin» babies lie, altogether forgetting that it is tho duty of a Customs officer to be inquisitive. The second baby is skirmishing around tho edge of the dock. Tho little woman overhauls him and piles him into the pram wifti a violence which sets both babies howling dismally, while she glares indignantly over her shoulder at tho unfortunate negro. ■Further;up the dock .a shabby compatriot of the Italian woman waits boside his wife and tlieir baggage—an enormous, and extraordinary canvas bag* "It is five feet high and four feet in diameter and there are many, strange protuberances beneath the canvas. ''Open that," curtly says a thin Yankee Customs officer. Exit the old Italian is in doubtj there aro explanations to,be offered. It is this way and that,'one sees from the movements of his hands as he chattels on. The official cannot listen. He takes a knife from his pocket; He slits the canvas front top to bottom, and a thousand pots, and pans spread themselves clatteringly over the cement floor. Suddenly scattered everywhere aro little bundles of dirty clothing, old grocery tins, bits of linoleum, picture frames, a three-logged stool, a doormat, a poker, every kind of kitchen and bedroom utensil—the furnishings and foundations "of the now American home. THE DOCTOR. The Italian and his wife scramble around agitatedly until their property is gathered and untidily heaped. It will have to remain whero it is to be recovered—just possibly—in the future. When we have to move on the old man protests, but he is caught by the collar of his coat and assisted from tho dock, his arms waving helplessly. Across a wooden jetty a barge is waiting for us. The wheels of the little •woman's pram keep jamming in the spaces between the planks, and I have to put down my packages and shove the pram while sho stands aside still muttering in angry Italian. Tho barge is like an uuswopt garbage truck. The walls are dirt-stained unpainted wood, and one plank on boxes is_ the only seat. Tho panes of the high-set, narrow windows are so grimy that one can see nothing through them and little light enters. We are barred in. The smell is terrible. . The hour wo spend in tho .filthy, floating prison is liko a week. Ellis Island is a number of flat brown buildings roaring themsolves from the mucky waters of the Hudson. lv a big bare tiled and whitewashed hall wo stand until we aro divided into male and femaje and taken off for a medical examination. Wo men are bundled into a small room containing two tables, two doctors in khaki uniform, and rows 'of clothes--hooks. Each doctor has in his mouth n fat -cigar, so that when ho mumbles a terse command nobody can understandit, whereupon tho doctor removes the cigar in order to swear. -We all-strip, and there is the usual hunt for weakness or disease. It is awesome to,see .the-big Swede. When he has.comprohended what it is that he must do-he-hurries-about it -with childish,- nervous clumsiness. Afterwards m New York, I am told that a youn<r South African artist waa kept on Ellis Island for three wretched weeks because he suffered from a contagious disoasc. He had no disease—but he had been "impertinent*"* to an. official. Reassembled in tho bare-hall, we sit on wooden benches doing nothing for two hours. Then two men in white overalls bring -thick, butterless sandwiches and coffee in cardboard cups It is an;unexpected treat. -The Italian woman begins to feed young Guiscppi and the German couple walk up and down with quick, springy stops, talking earnestly. -■«---" " FINAL CLASH. Those kh3ki-clad officials appear. Two are examiners who seat themselves at high desks at the end of the hall, and the other four aro their supporting clerks and interpreters. -They are to inquire into the general moral and economic- standing of the immigrants. Their favourite method- of inquiry is a inighly banging of the fist on the desk. 'One of the first to be arraigned is a peasant woman who can only stand dumb and listless while tho fist-bang-ing and shouting become a, pandemonium. The interpreter stamps his foot and shakes her by the shoulders, and the cloth on her head slips ludicrously over her ear. She is cross-examined for nearly an hour, ■The big Swede also occasions much exasperation, but nobody touches him. me Italian woman clutches her babies and is vociferously defiant, and also escapes being bullied. The examination of one immigrant takes anything from three minutes to three-quarters of an hour, and it is 4 o^lock before my name is called. The ?™7i, t°i iat my papers and then rT^fn *noV omebody Ivho kn<"v General .Cronje. He asks me whether I knew General Cronjo and I say "No » and try to look apologetic about it. ' Two hours later I step off a ferryboat: into a New York street and catch sight of the little Italian woman. To her charges she has now added a welcoming husband. At tho moment she is ignoring him in order to conduct an argument with a taxi-driver