"LAND OF THE FREE"

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 13, 17 January 1922, Page 8

"LAND OF THE FREE"

AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAWS

AUSTRALASIANS SHUT OUT

"SCANDALOUS TREATMENT."

The working of the new immigration laws in. America in their application to Australia and New Zealand lias been given prominence recently.in regard to the case of Mrs. Mary Boyd, who was separated from her children in New York on the ground that the quota of Australian immigrants for a certain period was full, but that cabled story, extraordinary as it is, lacks the even more extraordinary detail of a first-hand story told to a Post reporter by Mr. J. Lester, of Sydney, who arrived in Wellington by the Maheno. The application of the new regulations in the case of those Australians and New Zealanders who left Sydney by the Ventura just prior to the enforcing1 of tho American Act' on Ist June last he described as scandalous Mr. Lester said that his first visit to America had been a pleasure trip, but while there he had been offered a big position with one of the oil companies, and hod accepted it. After 12 months' service he applied for leave of absence and was granted a spell of three months that he might revisit Sydney. His stay there was not long, for he booked his return passage by the same boat, the Ventura, and left Sydney on Ist June, the day on which the regulations i came into force in America.

At the time of sailing no one on board had any knowledge of the Act, but doubts were first aroused when the news was published, following the receipt of a wireless message, in the ship's paper. To those who had sold their homes and businesses in Australia, or New Zealand with tho intention of settling in America, the news came as a thunderbolt, and the opinion of the captain of the ship was sought. He placed them more at their ease by saying that as they were on.the high sease when the notification was made, the regulations would1 not apply in their cases.

HELD AT ANGEL ISLAND.

When the Ventura arrived at San Francisco, said Mr. Lester, doubts were aroused again. The immigration officers took charge of.papers and passports and kept the passengers waiting about on the vessel for some hours before returning with instructions that they would have to go to the immigration station on Angel Island " for half an hour or so" while the passports were being seen to, at the end of which time they would be allowed to return to San Francisco. The twenty-nine passengers in question, husbands, wives, and children, were then taken over to Angel Island on the immigration launch, and, to their astonishment, were placed in a cage compound with Chinese and Japanese situated on the top of a-hill, "five hundred steps up." The women were then separated from their husbands without a word of explanation. Mr. Lester objected to the treatment, and after some trouble and the use of personal force was permitted to go down to interview the officer in charge of the station. The whole facts of the case were put before him, but he said that nothing could be done until word was received from Washington. One result of the interview, however, was that the passengers were shifted to another building away from the Orientals, but at meal time whites and Orientals met' again—men, women, and children. Another complaint was made to the officer in charge, and permission was given the whites to take their meals after the Orientals had left the dining saloon. MEALS AND GUARDS. " The meals were unfit for consumption," .said Mr. Lester, "and when we inquired why there was such a scarcity of food and why the quality was so poor, we were told that the food was supplied under contract at 20 cents per meal, so that our three meals per day cost 2s 6d at a time when nowhere in San Francisco could a good meal be had for less than one dollar. Breakfast was at half-past 6, dinner at 11.30, and supper at 3.30, and we were provided with nothing between half-past 3 in one afternoon until 6^30 next morning. AVOIDING THE CENSORSHIP. . Following breakfast on the first day, he continued, the passengers were allowed to walk on the verandah -of the lower building, under guard, but when the immigration launch appeared all were locked in' a room-cage (a photograph of' which was produced), and no communication was permitted with whoever had arrived on the launch. Mr. Lester then sought permission to get into touch with the British Consul at San Francisco, but was told that letters could only be sent subject to censorship. However, he was given permission to call up a lady of his acquaintance on the telephone, again in the presence of an officer, and he asked her to visit him on the island if possible. In the meantime he wrote, two letters, one- of which he posted in the station letter box that it might be censored, but the second he held until he had an opportunity to slip it to his friend while the guard was not as attentive as he was required to be.

"That letter was delivered by my friend personally," said Mr. Lester, "and two days later the Consul sent a depTity to the island. I asked whether the' first letter had arrived at the Consul's office and was told that it had not; evidently it had been destroyed by the officials at the immigration station. The Deputy Consul, after being shown through the buildings, promised to get into touch with Washington immediately and have something done for us. On the fourth day we were taken to the head office, and we were informed that no word had yet been received from Washington, but that we would be allowed to go from the station on condition that we reported at the island again in forty-eight hours. Practically all our valuables were taken from us and we were left just enough to pay our hotel expenses for those forty-eight hours. Our photographs were then taken, together with full particulars as to marks of identification, etc., our* reasons for visiting America were noted, and we were allowed to go. At the expiration of our' leave we, reported back at the island, but no notice was taken of us, and we were allowed to wander about the verandah for the best part of the day. While we were there, I may mention, one of the officials came up to me and, referring to the group of Australians and New Zealandera, on the verandah, said: 'I suppose yon are the Australians. Do any of you speak English?' ■ ■.. . ORDERED TO QUIT COUNTRY. ''Again we were taken into the maiß office, singly, and photographs and particulars were taken for the second time. We were told that instructions had been received from .Washington that we were to be allowed to leave the island ujion C?ie 6trict condition that we quit th« country within 90 days. I objected to the condition, and said that I would ' not abide'by it. The result was that I was kept on the island and later placed on. board the Ventura again and returned to Sydney. My position, in America went west a long time ago." DISGRACEFUL CONDITIONS. The general conditions in the sleeping and eating rooms were disgraceful. In each of the deeping roomi, out for

men and the other for women, there were 120 beds, arranged in threes, one above the other. No. mattresses were provided, and the two blankets per bed were infested with lice. The ventilation was bad, the windows were barred, and there were no fire escapes. The. buildings were of weatherboard, arid as there was no water supply on the island, the chances of those locked up, for all tho world like prisoners and not like intending citizens of "the freest country of the world," said Mr. Lester, might well be imaginud. While he was on the island one of the water boats broke down, and as a result there was a water famine. Everyone was placed oft rations, and when one \ had a wash or even a drink a guard stood by .to see that no water was waßted. It was not' fit to drink without boiling, probably on accounty of .the dirty sfate of the tanks on the water boat. Guards stood by at all times, even at meal times.

THE CASE OF CAPTAIN ADAMS.

Among the passengers was a New Zealand family of husband, wife, and three children. The boy contracted spinal meningitis from the Chinese, Mr. Lester believed, and was removed to a San Francisco hospital, since there was no such accommodation on the island. The mother was allowed to see the boy twice a week, the father once a week. Another woman had a child at breast, but she was urjable to obtain any fresh milk to supplement its food. The worst case of all, said Mr. Lester, was that of Captain Adams, of Neutral Bay, Sydney, who had arrived some days earlier, having travelled by the Tahiti, which arrived on '20th June. Captain Adams had suffered a severe wound in the thigh during the war, and was then on his way to England to obtain treatment in a London hospital. However, through an oversight on the part of the shipping company at Sydney, he had not had his passport vised by the American Consul, and as a consequence'paid dearly. He was treated as were others on the island, in spite of his injury, being placed among the Chines* and Japanese and being forced to climb up and down the five hundred or so steps leading up from eating-house to sleeping quarters. The wound brok« out again, and he was placed in the emergency hospital, where, however^ there were no proper facilities to deal with such £■ case. His case was explained to the island officials, and they were made aware of the fact that he had a passage booked at New York by a boat sailing on 6th July. Captain Adams asked to be allowed to go to New York at once, and offered to pay a first-class fare for an escort from San Francisco to New York and back, but was told that all his papers had to go to Washington and that in the meantime nothing could be done. Three days after his case had been laid before the Deputy British Consul, however, Captain Adams was allowed to leave the island,-but his leg was then so bad that he had to enter the general hosipital at San Francisco, and missed his boat for London. Before leaving the island Captain. Adams gave his. fellow-detainees an assurance that he would report the conditions and treatment on the island to the British Consul at New York, and "would also report the neglect of the British Consul at San Francisco when he arrived at London.

A COMPARISON.

"I was a prisoner of war for a time," said Mr. Lester in conclusion, " and 1 must say that I was a good deal better treated then than I was on Angel Island. Apart from all conditions of housing' and eating' I did object to being held in the company of Orientals. Under present conditions six persons from Australia and two,. from New Zealand are allowed to land in America each month to take up> residence there, and I consider that very plain warning should be given intending emigrants to America to see tha.t their names are included in the quota for a particular period, lest they should find themselves subjected to the scandalous treatment meted out to us. Moreover, it must be remembered that Australians or New Zealanders may arrive in America by way of England, and thus fill the quota for a particular month, leaving no room for immigrants sailing from Australasia direct."