AUSTRALIAN POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 40, 17 February 1939, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN POLICY

REFUGEE IMMIGRANTS

DESIRABLE TYPES ONLY

(From "The Post's" Represantatlve.) SYDNEY, February 10.

More than 40,000 European refugees have applied during the last 18 months for permits to "land in Australia, and the Department of the Interior is receiving about 2000 letters a week.

Applications are coming in faster than we can deal with them, said the secretary of the Department, Mr. Carrodus. "We are allowing in only 5000 migrants a year, and those to whom permits are being issued are being hand-picked to ensure the introduction of desirable types."

Mr. Carrodus said that during the December quarter of last year, permits for 1736 refugees had been approved by the Commonwealth Government. The Government's policy, providing for the admission of 15,000 European refugees in, three years, did not take effect until the beginning of this year, and it was expected that about 5000 permits would be granted annually, though the, Government would not insist on the exact number being adhered to so long as not more than 15,000 refugees had entered the country by the «nd of the three-year period. >

Many of the migrants to whom permits were being issued, Mr. Carrodus added, were not Jews. A number of them were Sudetan Germans. No applications had so far been received from republican Spaniards.

Mr. Carrodus said that the Department had not received any reports that Jewish employers in Australia were dismissing Australian employees to create vacancies for refugees of their own religion. Any notification of victimisation of this kind would be immediately investigated and action would be taken where necessary.

INFLUX OF CAPITAL.

Many wealthy refugees are entering Australia with the intention of establishing new industries here, including one immigrant who has already spent £7000 in starting the manufacture of a specially finished woollen fabric. Mr. Carrodus revealed this when outlining the methods by which, the Government is "handpicking" aliens who seek permits to enter Australia, but he said that if the mass settlement of foreign Jews in the capital cities continued, the Federal Government would take action to break up the , groups. The problem was difficult because most of the Jewish applicants were town types. Nearly every refugee arriving in Australia possessed at least £500, and some of them brought thousands of pounds with them. Unless a male refugee had substantial capital or was a skilled worker, he was not granted a permit. Jn this way the Department allowed entry only to migrants who could supply skilled labour where it was needed, or to those who would not compete with unskilled Australian workmen.