CUSTOMS REGULATIONS.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1015, 7 October 1903, Page 2

CUSTOMS REGULATIONS.

A PROTEST FROM PASSENGERS

“ A recent traveller ” forwards the following cutting from tho San Francisco Chronicle of July 31st, regarding a protest made by many passengers on tho steamer “ Siberia” as to the new customs rule at Honolulu in regard to passengers booking to Amorican ports. In order to avoid this annoyance the writer advises tourists to book via Honolulu and Vancouver; the latter is a British port, and passengers are therefore not subjected to such treatment with their baggage while passing through Honululu : —“ Many of the passengers arriving from the Orient in the steamer Siberia expressed great indignation over the manner in which their baggage was overhauled by the Customs Inspectors at Honolulu, following an order recently made by the Secretary of the Treasury directing the searching of baggage of passengers passing through Honolulu for this country. A statement of the trouble and discomfort experienced by tho passengers on the Siberia was prepared on board, and given to the press upon arrival of tho liner, was signed by many of the saloon passengers, and was as follows:—The Siberia called at Honolulu to discharge some cargo, land a few passengers, and receive passengers for San Francisco. As soon as the health officers came on board a sguad of Custom House officers followed, and with tho exception of three or four, they looked and acted like a lot of jackals. Tho passengers from China, Japan, and the Philippines were ordered to get their baggage ready for inspection, , although bound for San Francisco, and ' still six days to sail from that port. They were also notified that what baggage they had in the baggage-room could not be touched and all would be sealed in the hold ; in fact it was simply seized I The baggage in the rooms was examined and the owners were dictated as to how many shirtß, collars, etc., they could retain. All the rest must be bundled up, and sent to the hold and sealed up. One gentleman r who had lived for several years in Japan had six suits of pyjamas. The Custom House officers said “ you can only have one,” and bundled the remaining-suits into the hold. This was only one instance. The clothing was taken from the rooms, and was rolled up and tied in any fashion; some in paper, some in nothing, and now lies in the lower hold ;.no receipt given for it; what condition it will be returned in can imagined. Men and women who have been living and .travelling in a tropical climate and were clothed in duck and flannels had their heavy clothing sealed up, and many serious cases of sickness are sure to arise before landing in San Francisco. We do not believe there is any law in the United States that permits the Secretary of the Treasury to use such high-handed measures, and trust that the Secretary has made a mistake by being mislead by overzealous Custom House officials. The foreigners are treated in the same way as the Americans although most of them were on their way to Europe via the United States. They one and all declared that they would never travel via San Francisco again. This is also the determination of two-thirds of the Americans on board. The officers on the steamer protested in every way but they were powerless. Not all of the signers agreed with the statement contained in the protest that there were jackals among, the Honolulu Inspectors. Lieutenant Kitchener, nephew of Lord Kitchener, was ! one who took occasion to voice his unwillingness to make such an illusion to the Inspectors. "They were' really good fellows,” he said,.but it is the annoying rule that they had to enforce that we objected to. Tho Siberia passengers are not the first to inake a strong protest against the rule, and the opinion is general that the Secretary’s order will soon be cancelled,’ 1