CHINESE EVADING IMMIGRATION LAW IN AUSTRALIA

Grey River Argus, 24 August 1949, Page 5

CHINESE EVADING IMMIGRATION LAW IN AUSTRALIA

SYDNEY, Aug. 23 Sudden raids have resulted in the arrests of prohibited immigrants under the war-time Refugees Removal Act. The arrests aroused resentment among Chnese residents of Sydney. The raids were made at the week-end for the prohibited immigrants. As a result many Chinese employed in city restaurants have gone into hiding. . Immigration Department officials have arrested 11 Chinese under the Act, which provides for the deportation of 800 Asiatcs who entered Australia as war-time refugees. The arrested men, some of whom are married to Australian girls, are now in Long Bay gaol awaiting deportation. The secretary of the Chinese Seamen’s Union, Mr A. Locke, has protested to the Chinese Consul-General about what he called “a sudden Ges : tapo-like arrest of these men ana asked him to take vigorous steps to halt “this high-handed method and protect seamen, who had served as allies in the war and later .became decent workers, from being treated like criminals.” The Consul-General has protested to the Commonwealth Immigration Department. He asked why the men are being held without being chaiged with an offence. He was informed that a charge is not necessary under the Act. The men would remain in gaol until the steamer, Taiping, is ready to leave for China in three or four weeks. Bail was refused. Wealthy Sydney Chinese are raising a fund to challenge the deportations.

Police Action Resented By Chinese Seamen Who Stage Strike

SYDNEY, August 23. Seventeen Chinese stewards e h" gaged in a sit-down strike on their ship’s gangpank at Newcastle. They all P fell in a heap to the wharf when the plank they had chosen for their demonstration proved unequal to the strain. They took with them a constable who was trying to board the ship Haven at the time. Two of the Chinese were taken to hospital. An attempt was made to shift the Haven to a coal-loading berth. The Chinese crew members then sat on the gangplank and the lines which held the ship to the wharf. When police arrived the Chinese used threatening language in their own tongue. , , , The ship is still at the wharf. Reporters who sought information on the strike were greeted with excited gesticulations and cries of "more pay, more pay”.

CHINESE SEAMEN’S UNION RESPONSIBLE

At a meeting in Sydney, the Chinese Seamen’s Union decided that the Chinese members of the Haven’s crew would not take the ship to sea until the owners replied to their demands for an increased overseas allowance and a positive assurance that their families in Shanghai will receive the Australian basic wage as an allotment. The captain was asked to cable these demands to the owners in Hong Kong. The Haven, which has been tied up in Newcastle since the beginning of the coal strike, is known locally as the “slow boat to China”.