MIGRANTS IN CANADA

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 51, 7 September 1928, Page 11

MIGRANTS IN CANADA

SHAMEFUL TREATMENT ALLEGATIONS AT WINNIPEG United l'ress Association—By Electric TcloBraph—Copyright. lustrallan Tress Association—United Sortie* (Received 7th September, 2 p.m.) WINNIPEG, 6th September. After making a personal investigation among British harvesters stranded and receiving rough treatment, Mr. David Kirkwood, Labour member for Dumbarton, conferred with the Dominion immigration officials and representatives of the railways on Thursday. Mr. Kirkwood termed the present system of looking after tho men "disgraceful." He described tho Baldwin plan of sending British minors to Canada as "criminal" in view of the absenco of organised efforts to see the men looked after all the time. At a conference on colonisation on Thursday between tho British Labour members and delegates of the Empire Parliamentary Association a bombshell was dropped by Mr. Thomas Johnson, Labour member for Stirling, who declared that ho witnessed the spectacle of British harvesters kept in underground cages at Winnipeg Railway Station, guarded by an armed soldier and two dozen police, the men not being permitted to leave and being herded together like sheep. "British citizens," he declared, "are not in the habit of being treated in this way." Mr. Thomas Shaw, Minister of Labour in the Ramsay Mac Donald Government, declared that he accompanied Mr. Johnson and had seen the conditions with his own eyes. "Viscount Peel,.chairman of tho delegation, said he had no personal knowlodge of the conditions, but he felt that it was tho proper time for an investigation to be held and the charges aired thoroughly. The Winnipeg Board of Trade is likely to petition the Federal Government to investigate.