ALIEN INFLUX

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 August 1938, Page 6

ALIEN INFLUX

CONTROVERSY IN AUSTRALIA. STATEMENTS BY CRITICS. Another of the periodical outbursts against alien immigration has swept across Australia in the last few days, and history repeats itself in a number of ways. The sequence of events in these outbursts is generally the same. An oversea steamer arrives and prominence is given in the newspapers to a large party of foreigners aboard her. Someone noses into statistics at Canberra and finds that alien migration is gaining. The responsible Minister then issues a statement denying that the Government’s restrictions are failing to check the alien influx. Some other interests, generally the trades unions or the Labour Party, takes him up and alleges that the restrictions are being evaded. The Minister retorts and challenges his opponents td produce proof of their statements. Then the controversy dies. . This has been the course of the latest criticism of alien immigration. A new feature of an old story concerns the' money which each foreign immigrant is supposed to possess before being per: mitted to land in Australia. If an immigrant is nominated and guaranteed by a person already settled in Australia, he needs to have £5O landing money; if not nominated, he must have £2OO. The allegations in the present controversy concern this £2OO.

Immigrants With No Money. The bitterest contributor to it was Mr McAlpine, acting-secretary of /the Sydney Labour Council, who said: “Apparently any foreigner can come to Australia, and as soon as he has accumulated £2OO he can bring in any number of his friends or relatives. Each of these immigrants is supposed to have his landing money. It seems obvious that hundreds are coming in with nothing. Probably the same sum of money is passed backwards and forwards to satisfy a set of customs regulations which are being openly flouted. “We know how strict the customs officers can be, as recent instances have proved. Therefore, the only conclusion we can come to is that the Federal Government has thrown wide the doors. A glance at the records of any industrial Court shows that these foreigners do not observe Australian standards when they settle here.”

“Dummying” Charges Denied. The acting-Minister of the Interior, Mr V. C. Thompson, immediately issued a denial of the £2OO “dummying” charges and said the Federal Government would welcome any evidence that would support them. It was anxious to check the practice if it existed, but, although the charges had been frequently made, no evidence had been produced. Instead, .the Government had found that it had not been let down in a single case where alien immigrants were guaranteed against becoming a charge on the State. Ninety-nine per cent of alien immigrants were guaranteed by friends or relatives, the guarantors maintaining them or giving them work without displacing Australian workmen.