IMMIGRATION CONTROL.

New Zealand Herald, Issue 17266, 16 September 1919, Page 9

IMMIGRATION CONTROL.

AUSTRALIAN PROPOSALS.

ANARCHISTS PROHIBITED.

"RIGHT" OF SOVIET ADVOCATES.

Legislation is now before the Commonwealth Parliament to extend the- restrictions on immigration. The Bill describes as a prohibited immigrant any anarchist or person who advocates the overthrow by force of the established Government of the Commonwealth or of any State or any civilised country, or of all forms of law, or was opposed to organised government. In moving the second reading of the Bill, Mr. Glynjj, Minister for Home and Territories, said there was no fundamental alteration in the principle of the law, Justice, and, as far as was-safely possible, liberality should be applied in the administration of the law affecting international relations. The object of the Bill was to protect their individuality as a nation against outside intrusion. Measures in Other Countries.

In dealing with similar laws elsewhere, Mr. Glynn said Australia seemed less affected by foreign immigration than any other dominion. Canada had closed her immigration offices on the Continent, and proposed to exclude Germans, Austrians, Bulgarians, and Turks, and was maintaining severe restrictions against Asiatics. . The United States law of 1917 provided for the exclusion of anarchists and persons who believed in or advocated the overthrow by force or violence of the Government, the assassination of public officials, or the unlawful destruction of public property. Mr. Glynn said America had claimed the right to send men back to Australia. The Ministry had stopped them, and hail taken the precaution that no one could land without a passport vised by a British authority. The Imperial Aliens Restriction Act of 1914, which gave general power to prevent immigration, had been suspended for two years, but the authorities had stopped classes of immigrants somewhat similar to those dealt with in the Bill.

Traversing the clauses of the Bill, Mr. Glynn said that the exclusion of any anarchist who;advocated force or violence was more temperate than the American Act in which belief in the doctrine was a sufficient ground. Mr. Higgs: Do you make any distinction between the philosophic anarchist and the other fellow ?

Mr. Pigott : They are all a bad lot. Mr. Glynn said the clause dealt with men who wanted to substitute force for reason, which, he thought, was not consistent with ithe views of members on either side of the House.

Mr. Brennan: You do not seem to have mentioned direct action. I think it was intended-, to be covered. Mr. Glynn: Direct action might refer to a referendum or to the use of force. Hi did not want to use an ambiguous expression." The Position of Irishmen. The leader of the Opposition, Mr. F. G. Tudor, declared that the Bill • would have made Sir Edward Carson a prohibited immigrant by his arranging for the. shipment of arms to Ireland before the war.

" Why are you complaining, then ?" asked Sir Robert Best amidst laughter. The Bill was morel? political camouflage, Mr. Tudor continued, for the Ministry was anxious to ray that it wished to keep out undesirable persons. Messrs. Donovan and Dillon, both of whom visited Australia some years ago, would have come under the restrictive clause because of the opinions they held. " You do not call that anarchy, do you ?" interjected Mr. Glynn. Mr. Tudor said those men advocated Home Rule—a different system of government.

" That is a most unjust reflection upon the character cJ those men," was Mr. Glynn's reply. Mr. Tudor added that the provision excluding the entry of Germans, AustroGennans, Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Turks would prolong the feeling of hate, and he objected to the stirring up of hatred.

Sir Robert Best directed attention to the action taken in Great Britain and the United States to prevent the entry of undesirable persons. Mr. Tudor had lightly touched upon the anarchists, but he would have done better if he could have taken up a stronger position against those who were disgracing and discrediting the Labour party on account of their extreme actions. There were in Australia avowed anarchists who had declared their determination to bring about the destruction of ordered government. All men of theBolshevik and anarchist type should be deported. q Bolshevism and Labour. Mr. Considine, in opposing the Bill, said it was part of a conspiracy by organised thieves in all parts of the world to deport people who were opposed to the i existing social order. He asked whether I the Bill would prevent the entry of an j advocate of the Soviet form of government. The Acting-Minister foi the Navy (Mr. Poyntonj : We hope it will, any way. , A man who advocates that should not be in this House. He has taken the oath of allegiance. Mr. Considine: If a, man from Europe who honestly believed in the organised Soviet form of government came to Australia to endeavour to convince the people here that that system was the best, he should be allowed to do so. He saw no reason why the Commonwealth should prevent a man who had been deported from America for advocating Bolshevism from coming into Australia. Mr. Considine continued to praise the Soviets, when Mr. Glynn interposed with the remark that the actions of the Soviets were not consistent with their declarations. They were purely advocates of force.

Dealing with the clause giving the right to deport a person not a native of Australia who advocated the unlawful destruction of property, Mr. Considine saw in it some evil design of a " tyrannical " Covernment against the working class. Not an Asylum for " Riff-raff." .Mr. Leckie said the whole trend of Mr. f'onsidine's speech was an expression of a wish that the riffraff who had been ex pplled from other countries should hp given an asylum in Australia. The Bill was not devised against, the working class. It was aimed against the men who " worked " thp workers, and most of whom had never done a day's honest work. At this stage Mr. Considine. who was the onlv Caucus member present, in an endeavour to embarrass the Ministry, called for a quorum. No Caucus members responded to thp ringing of the Ijells. and when Mr. Leckie was told to proceed with his speech he intimated that he did not wish to do so. Amid laughter, the ~i- mid reading was then agreed to on I in- voices. When Mr. Tudor and other ' audi* members entered the chamber later lhex were subjected to much badinage mi theii having fallen Into what seemed to be a trap for the Ministry. " I thought y ii were opposed to the' Rill." -aid Mr.' I.aiid Smith " You had not the courage to vote against it." In committee Mr. Olvnn explained that an immigrant did not mean an ordinary tourist. If people intended to remain in th Commonwealth, no matter whether thev travelled first class or second class, they were regarded in the Rill as immigrants.