BACK TO AUSTRALIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8304, 7 June 1907, Page 5

BACK TO AUSTRALIA.

IMPOSITION ALLEGED. (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright* Per Press Association. Received June 7, 10.4 a.m. SYDNEY, June 7. The Seamen's Union delegate reported to the Labour Council that 80 per cent of the last batch of men from South Africa were not repatriated Australians. When the officials could not get a full complement of Australians the vacancies were thrown open to the public of Durban. Our Australian files give the following details of the repatriation of these Australians:— , The Swedish steamer Atlantic, which arrived at Melbourne the other day, had on board 418 Australians who had become stranded in South Africa, and were being repatriated at the cost of the Commonwealth Government. The vessel had been converted into an immigrant ship. The passengers were divided into two sets—married and single. The married people and their children were housed in the forward hold, while the single men were relegated to the afterhold. Over i the hatchways pine gratings had been put, so that air might descend into crowded holds, while the hold was divided into two. storeys by a floor of Eine. In the married quarters cabins ad been built, with bunks for 12 persons in each. The single men had to sleep in hammocks. Nearly everyone was comfortably dressed. It was hard to believe that- these people were so poverty-stricken that they could contribute nothing to their passage money back. Some of them smoked cigars, but that was among the single men. The women were obviously the wives of working men. Children, too, wore the careworn look of those who know what it is to be hungry. One baby three months aid died a few days ago after the vessel left Durban. These married people were glad to see Australia. Their treatment on the voyage had delighted them. Down in the afterhold the welldressed single gentlemen talked in a different way. " Something really ought to be said in protest against the way we have been treated, exclaimed one of them. "We have been herded together in this pigstye, and we have been fed worse than pigs. For tea we got a few biscuits and a few daubs of treacle. We got better rations than that in the war. For ! breakfast we got porridge and more 1 biscuits. Dinner was a better meal, but I could not eat it—bully beef and tinned mutton. We only got soup twice all the voyage, and until a week ago we had no bread." All the single men did not speak in this_ way; but there was a disaffected section. They held meetings of protest often, and sent formal resolutions to the master, Captain Schmid, who did his best to satisfy them. On one occasion such a meeting actually passed a vost of want of confidence in the skipper, and expressed its profound conviction that he had lost his bearings, and would never reach Australia. The captain, fortuhad a strong sense of humour, or there might have been trouble. The night before the vessel reached port, howver, two illuminated addresses—rough but genuine—were presented to him—one in the afterhold and one in the forward. All united in telling the same story of depression in South Africa. Of the 418 immigrants 173 were for Victoria, 190 were for New South Wales, 19 for Queensland, 24 for West Australia, and 12 for South Australia. Everybody was required to sign a paper declaring that he was an Australian, and giving the names of friends and relatives here, the ship he left in, his occupation, age, etc. This searching inquiry showed that about 50 of the repatriated Australians " had never been in Australia before, but desiring to leave South Africa they had seized the chance of a free passage, and palmed themselves off as Australians. | Twenty-five immigrants worked their j way as stewards.