FIFTY CHINESE

Hokitika Guardian, 12 November 1927, Page 1

FIFTY CHINESE

- FOUND ON DUTCH STEAMER. II DDDLER IN SMALL COM PAP.TMKNT. SYDNEY. Oct. 28. Following closely on the capture of a dozen Chinese smuggled into Sydney I ruin the Dutch steamer A rendskork. Customs officials at Fremantle made tile startling discovery of fifty Chinese cooped up in a water tank beneath a hold <>f another steamer of the same line, the Almkerk. Conditions were disclosed outvying anything told of the slave trade or of lihukhirding in the South Seas. Evidently the Chinese were secreted in the bottom hold hy someouo aboard the steamer and kept there until Australia was nearly sighted. Then about 21 hours before tin- vessel berthed, the Chinese were forced into a water tank under this bottom hold and horded into a space about ten feet square and four feet high. The Customs officials made a thorough search of the ship, and after removing large quantities ol cargo from the hold, tho tops of the water tank were found. Then groans were heard, and in feverish haste the holts on the tank covers were removed. The covers were lifted, and the foulest of foul odours issued. So foetid was the air tluiL acetylene torches lowered into the tank wore immediately extinguished. Gas masks were requisitioned and equipped with these Customs olfieials were lowered into the tank. PI LIT OF INERT 150DIF.S. An amazing sight mot their eves. There seemed to ho a pile of corpses. Nothing in Dante’s inferno could have been worse. Fifty Chinese, everyone of them inert, unconscious, were at the bottom of the tank, which held foul bilge water a foot in depth. Their limbs were entwined, and as the fresh air through the aperture revived them slightly, they raised limp hands to the

Customs officials as if begging to he released from their prison. None of the Chinese could stand. One by one they had to he lifted through the aperture of the tank. “ Another three hours in that prison.” said a doctor who examined them, “and they would have been all dead.” Many of the Chinese bore bruises on bodies and heads evidently inflicted as they struggled to reach the two or three narrow pipes carrying the only air into tho tank. CHINESE SLACK TRADE. This is the largest haul of prohibited immigrants made in the Commonwealth. It is stated that a regular trade is carried on in Chinese slaves tor gardeners and others. As much as Cloo is given for. a Chinese landed, the new arrivals being kept from observation until they learn something of the language and how to “ dodge ” the police. That the investigations arising from the Almkerk discovery are likely to he of an inter-

Rational character is indicated by the “ stated belief that Rotterdam, the home port of the Dutch steamers on which the recent discoveries have been made, is the headquarters of an international smuggling gang, which employs Chinesc 'members of ships’ crows as agents I to smuggle their countrymen into countries where they are not permitted to land. I One of the worst features of this trade is that many Chinese are alleged to meet their death on the way out, in |. order to save the agents who contract p to hide them on the vessels from compromises. Thus in the Almkerk’s case, .12 passports for Chinese were found, but only 50 Chinese were brought to light. The Chinese themselves said that 57 of them came aboard. "What happened to the “deficit”? That is a feature of the discovery that is interesting Australian investigators, and though the task of proving that missing Chinese died during the voyage would he a stupendous one, it is pos sible that charges of causing deaths may yet lie lodged against someone on the boat. As it is, the captain of the vessel has a penalty of £SOOO hanging over his hank account, and several Chinese members of the crew have also been charged.