“Permit Bootleggers ”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 269, 3 February 1928, Page 1

“Permit Bootleggers ”

CANADA’S FOREIGN IMMIGRANTS Grave Charges Against Politicians SENSATIONAL DISCLOSURES LIKELY By Cable.—Frets Atsociation. — Copyright. Received 9.5 a.m. OTTAWA, Thursday. SENSATIONAL disclosures are likely as a result of the Parliamentary investigation promised by the Prime Minister, Mr. W. L. Mackenzie King, into certain phases of the immigration problem. It is common knowledge that members of Parliament have been using the permit system to get certain persons into Canada, but the system was never contemplated for the purpose of making considerable money by this means.

There are persistent stories that a few members and some outside persons have received substantial revenue by procuring permits to admit foreigners at so much per head. Even more serious are credible stories of “permit bootleggers,” or persons who manufacture bogus permits and distribute them to the financial advantage of themselves and others. Mr. Robert Porke, Minister of Immigration, knows of the existence of such an industry, and mounted police are on the track.—A. and N.Z. ALARM AT FOREIGN TIDE

A special correspondent of “The Times” says: In the years just before and since the war the proportion of immigrants to Canada from European countries other than Great Britain has been constantly increasing, and at

the present time the number of immigrants from countries other than Great Britain is considerably greater than the number from Great Britain. In many quarters in Canada there is much alarm to-day about this excess. Since 1921 no fewer than 202,000 people have arrived in Canada from countries other than the United Kingdom and U.S.A. It may be noted that during these years the number of arrivals from foreign countries has almost doubled. In 1921, for example, the migrants from foreign countries (excluding America) totalled 26,000 in round figures. By 1924 the total had leaped to over 55,000. The latest available statistics show that the annual influx of foreigners, even under the permit system, is over 40,000.