NOT ALLOWED TO LAND

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21315, 7 November 1934, Page 12

NOT ALLOWED TO LAND

♦ Irishman's Visit 1 o i Australia

COULD NOT PASS TEST IN

DUTCH DICTATION

ITHE PRESS Special Service.J

WELLINGTON, November 6. •■I am that Dutchman," said Gerald Griffin, of Wellington, a native of Ireland and a British subject, who returned from Sydney to-day and showed a reporter a clipping of a press cablegram to New Zealand, stating that a Dutch passenger who arrived at Sydney by the Monowai had been shipped back to New Zealand by the Marama because he failed to pass a dictation test in Dutch. Mr Griffin said he knew nothing of Dutch, and could not be expected to know it; but he surmised that advantage was being taken of some technicality of Australian law to exclude him. He was asked no questions beyond his name, even though he suggested that he was being confused with another person. He did not set foot on Australian soil, but was taken across the Union Steam Ship Company's wharf from one steamer to the other, between the Monowai's arrival and the Marama's departure an hour later. "I went to Sydney as a bona fide passenger," said Mr Griffin, "and on the arrival of the ship at the wharf at 3 p.m. on Friday I was summoned to the purser's room and there accosted by two customs officials, one of whom informed me that I would be given a dictation test in Dutch which would be read to me twice, and if I failed to write it correctly I would be deemed an undesirable immigrant and not allowed to go ashore.

Objection Raised "I objected to the procedure, and said that I was a British subject, having been born in Cork, Ireland, and having lived in New Zealand continuously for 20 years. I had never been prosecuted by the police, and had no criminal conviction of any kind. "However, the passage was read to me twice, and I was formally advised that I could not go ashore. In answer to my question, an official admitted that he himself had no knowledge of Dutch. I suggested that I was being confused with some other person of the same name: but the official replied iliat there could be no mistake, as they had been advised about me from Canberra. He said I was a Communist. I replied that that had yet to be proven. I demanded an interview with the captain, and asked for legal advice ashore. I obtained neither. I was taken below and locked in a thirdclass cabin. About 20 minutes later I was released and taken in charge by a harbour policeman and a customs official, and placed aboard the Marama, which was at the same wharf. Interview With Captain "I was locked in a cabin again, but when the ship was beneath the bridge on her way down the harbour I was released and I obtained an interview with the captain. The only explanation that he could offer was that I was being sent back to New Zealand at the instruction of the Australian authorities. He could give me no information as to what would occur when I arrived back at Wellington. My main object in visiting Australia was to attend the forthcoming All Australia Congress against war, which will open in Melbourne on Friday. I am national secretary of the New Zealand Movement Against War and Tascism. and I was to have attended on behalf of that body. It is not a Communist organisation, and one of the leading figures in the Australian movement is Bishop Burgman, of New South Wales. I am not a member of the Communist party.'' Mr Griffin said he had had no difficulty in landing in Wellington this morning. He went to Australia on a single ticket, and his papers were in order before he left this country.