THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. THURSDAY JANUARY 23. 1947. Admission Of Alien Immigrants

Northern Advocate, 23 January 1947, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. THURSDAY JANUARY 23. 1947. Admission Of Alien Immigrants

Australians are well aware that their great continent is grossly un-der-populated, and that if they wish to retain possession of their country its population must be greatly increased.

There will be none to dispute this contention, which applies, also, though in lesser degree, to New Zealand, which, like Australia, must either populate or perish. At the same time, means for speeding up increase in population must be watched carefully, especially so far as immigration is concerned. If this care is not exercised, the cure may prove worse than the disease. Australians at the moment are keenly interested in a controversy raised by allegations concerning the bena Odes of some immigrants admitted from the Far East. It seems that the erstwhile attitude towards Britain and Australia of some of the immigrants is the main cause of criticism, for there are made suggestions that Communists and White Russians have had some hand in the selection of immigrants, while oilier immigrants were apparently persona grata with the Japanese, who left them unmolested during the war.

It is difficult to say whether the allegations are well founded, but there is apparently ground for suspicion that two rival organisations in Australia are interesting themselves in the immigration of men who might be expected to support the ideologies for which the organisations stand.

In this connection it is interesting to note that official investigations are being made by the Commonwealth Investigation Branch, the Customs Department and the Immigration Department,

The Federal Crown Solicitor is reported to have said that he had no official knowledge ol' any rival organ-

isalions in Australia, while Commonwealth Investigation Branch officers stated at Canberra that there had been no Comomnwealth investigation into the two organisations mentioned.

These details have not satisfied the Sydney papers, which have sounded warning notes. One paper, citing a suggestion that a special investigator should be sent to Shanghai to ascertain whether any of the immigrants recently admitted to Australia collaborated with the Japanese or engaged in blackmarket operations, says very rightly that “a check should not be allowed to wait until they have passed our gates—<t should be made long before the migrants are allowed to embark at all."

That touches the ’ heart of the whole question of immigration as affecting New Zealand and Australia. There are a number of questions which should be satisfactorily answered before migrants are permitted to leave overseas lands.

It should be demonstrated, for example, that they arc not carriers of infectious philosophies more difficult to deal with when imported into a new country than are diseases which attack the human frame. It should also be demonstrated that interested bodies are not in the background, promoting the migration of the aliens concerned.

While humanitarian feelings may prompt a welcoming hand to people in distress, sparsely populated countries should be careful that they are not welcoming those who may one day become the betrayers of established customs and beliefs.

The immigration of aliens is a matter calling for great circumspection on the part of the authorities, who should regard themselves as the custodians of their country's future no less than its emergency needs.