MIGRANTS FOR AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28493, 24 January 1958, Page 17

MIGRANTS FOR AUSTRALIA

Britons Said To Be Fobbed Off i (N.Z Press Association —Copyrlghti SYDNEY, Jan. 23. Skilled British workers who ■ wanted to migrate to Australia ; were being fobbed off at Australia House in London, the president of the British Australian • Association (Mr L. A. Clapperton) said yesterday. Fitters, plumbers, wood turners, . bricklayers, nurses and agri- ' cultural workers had been told they were not wanted in Australia, he claimed. Mr Clapperton was commenting on a speech by the Leader of the Federal Opposition (Dr. H. V. Evatt) at the opening of the Citizenship Convention at Canberra. Dr. Evatt had said that : the migrant intake should be 60 per cent. British. Mr Clapperton said the proportion of British migrants should be more thafi 60 per cent. This was necessary to make up for the overwhelming proportion of , European migrants brought out in ■ recent years, he said. He had. received many letters i from skilled tradesmen in Britain who had been foobbed off at Australia House. “At the same time, the Immigration Department I is scouring Europe, and particularly southern Europe, for any kind of migrant,” he said. 1 Prefer British “A huge majqrity of Australian employers prefer British migrants. “This is not narrow racialism. It is natural for us to want to r preserve our Australian characteristics. "But the Federal Government is apparently determined to

change the recipe.” Conditions at migrant holding centres were scandalous, delegates to the Australian Workers’ Union convention at Sydney said yesterday. The union’s New South Wales secretary (Mr C. T. Oliver) said: “Migrants are living like ants — crawling from all sorts of buildings. “The whole question of housing for migrants is serious and will become worse if more are brought out. “It is absurd for the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (Mr Albert Monk) to say that Australia can absorb additional migrants.”