OWNERS’ LIABILITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26437, 16 April 1947, Page 5

OWNERS’ LIABILITY

CONDITIONS ON EGYPTIAN SHIP TRANSPORT OF IMMIGRANTS Rec. 8 p.m. CANBERRA, Apl. 15. Officials of the Immigration Department said that the Government was not responsible for conditions on board the Egyptian immigrant ship Missr, which arrived at Fremantle on Sunday. Conditions in the vessel, the arrangements for the voyage, and the number carried were matters for the company owning the vessel. The officials were unable to say who had selected the migrants. The Minister of Immigration, Mr A. A. Calwell, waited at the wharf for several hours, but did not board the ship. The Jewish authorities claim that only a few of the migrants were Jewish refugees. They fix the total of nominated immigrants as about 30.

An earlier message stated that the Missr arrived in Fremantle on Saturday with a passenger list of 733, of whom 275 were British. Most of the 458 aliens on the ship were Jewish refugees from the Middle East. Prior to the vessel’s arrival at the Australian port, passengers claimed that racial brawls had taken place in the steerage saloon. Allegations of filthy conditions were made, including a lack of toilet facilities, and it was stated that most of the migrants, travelling in slum conditions in the steerage, had no knowledge of personal or communal hygiene.