RIGHT OF EXCLUSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15650, 2 July 1914, Page 7

RIGHT OF EXCLUSION.

THE LAW IN CANADA. BRITISH IMMIGRANTS. EFFECT OF PRESENT ACT. By Telegraph Press Association—Copyright. Victoria, June 30. Inasmuch as it is especially provided that officers of the military and naval forccs and their wives and families arc not to be considered immigrants applying for admission to Canada, counsel fur the Immigration Department in the Komagata Maru case argued to-day that it was thereby assumed that British subjects were to be considered immigrants. The samo section stated that on retiring from their functions such officers were to be considered subject to tho clauses of the Immigration Act. If it were provided nowhere else it was clear that Canada had the right to exclude British subjects of other Dominions. During the morning 71 volumes of law Jjooks lay upon the lawyers' table for reference during argument. s GRAVE IMPERIAL ISSUE. Commenting'upon the situation before tho Komagata Maru had arrived at Vancouver, the Victoria. Colonist raid:—"A steamship is approaching our shores having on board 600 British subjects,Tvho como peeking a home in. a British country. They are not, it is said, persons likely to becomo a charge upon Canada. Their coming seems like tho approach' of a crisis." The paper proceeded to point out that the issue was one of Imperial magnitude. Tlio Indians wero coming not simply because they wanted better conditions,-but because they desire to assert the contention that all British subjects have equal rights to migrate from ono part of tho Empire to anothor, unless they are of a clasa likely to become a public charge' in the country to which they go. The Sikhs could be kept out, but that only emphasised the gravity of the problem. While it had no solution to offer and no lino of conduct to suggest that might be more wisely followed than the present Canadian policy, and while it had great faith in the solvent properties of time, it concluded, "the thought will not down that we are .about to witness the beginning of one of those tremendous movements of mankind which set at defiance all preconceived ideas and sweep away established ]»!icies as though they were so many cobwebs."