ALIEN INFLUX

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 December 1924, Page 5

ALIEN INFLUX

WHTE AUSTRALIA POLICY.

QUESTIONS CONCERNING IT.

WHO SHALL DECIDE THEM? WHAT WILL AUSTRALIANS DO? (Received Dee. 13, 9.50 a.m.) MELBOURNE, Dec. 13. Addressing a meeting on his return from the Geneva Conference, Mr Charlton, leader of the Federal Opposition, said that it had been stated that a question involving the White Australia policy should not be left to the International Court to decide, but the highest authorities had assured him of the safety of leaving such a question to the Court, The people in Australia had advocated that the question should be left to the League Council, which, Mr Charlton stated, was the very thing Japan wanted. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. LONDON, Dec. 11.

An Australian business mail on board the Cephee telegraphs from Ragusa (Dalmatia) that the vessel was specially and hurriedly fitted out to carry midsouthern Europe migrants to Australia. This is evidently part of the new migratory movement, though the oompany insists that its agencies hooked the migrants as individuals, and all that has happened is that the stream of Continental migrants is being diverted from the United States and turning to Australia as the only empty country left. The company unwittingly included a Bulgarian, but he will be put ashore somewhere in the Mediterranean, as it has since been discovered that exenemy subjects may not land in Australia. The Cephee embarked between 600 and 700 Jugo-Slavs and a few Italians at Ragusa, hut no Czechs were booked. The narrator adds: “The permanent appearance of the fittings on board the Cephee induced me to make inquiries. I am told that other vessels are similarly equipped, but they will not leave the regular run in future. Instead migrants will be .taken to Marseilles.’* The first and second-class passengers on hoard the Cephee are troubled regarding til© prospects of quarantine when the ship reaches Australia. Inquiries iu London show that the only information in Australian circles is that a year ago the Messageries Maritimes obtained information from tralia House respecting the »ondftions under which such migrants ionic! be taken to Australia. Nothing M-ems to be known concerning the issue of passports or if the migrants have been medically examined.