HARSH TREATMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 13 December 1926, Page 15

HARSH TREATMENT

INTERNED IN CANADA UNENVIABLE EXPERIENCE. AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY. Auckland, Dec. 6. An extraordinary story of apparent harsh treatment by the Canadian immigration authorities was told to-day by F. Nanearrow, who returned to New Zealand with his wife and five children by the Niagara. Mr. Nanearrow is an ex-service man. He wears decorations for service with the British Navy during the Great War, but according to his Story that did not make him welcome to Canada,. where he and his family were interned. During the Niagara's stay at Vancouver they were kept under lock and key in detention barracks among Chinese, Indians and other coloured aliens, amid dirt and squalor, and were fed on rice and garlic. On their arrival at Vancouver the Nanearrow family were interviewed by the immigration authorities. "We told them we were going through to the United States," said Mr. Nanearrow. TRAPPED. "They said they would see us through and we handed over our luggage for them to transport. Then we found that we were trapped, for they took us to the immigration detention barracks and put us under lock and key. They absolutely refused to allow us to eross the border into the United States, although my wife’s father, to whom we had cabled from Honolulu came to Vancouver from Idaho to take us back with him. I asked the reason why British subjects were thus held up when Canadian papers said that there was work for thousands in Ontario and elsewhere, but got no satisfactory answer. My father-in-law saw the American Consul and he said he would place us on the quota and allow us to cross into the United States but the Canadian authorities refused to liberate us, saying we had told lies in our immigration papers. The American Consul tried his best and said that if we could even get out of barracks for a walk he would get us across into the United States, but we had no chance ot getting out. We were told we were not wanted in Canada, and when we said we did not want to stay there but wished to get to our people in Idaho where I was going to work on a ranch owned by my wife’s father, the reply was that we could not cross the border as an agreement had been reached by the United States and Canada whereby there were to be no more immigrants allowed across the line. “ALL BUNKUM.” Of course this was all bunkum. We were kept for five days in barracks and the only food given u* for the first three daye being stuff they threw to the Chinese and Indians. Rice and garlic with a bit of steak of some sort which we could not eat. We asked for something else so we had some eggs given us on the last two daye. "The barracks,” continued Mr. Nanearrow, “were dirty and squalid, and no attempt was made to clean our quarters while we were there. They told us that they made no provision there for white people, and what do you think the Canadian immigration officer said to me when I reminded him that I wae an ex-service man, a British subject who had fought for England and the Empire and demanded to know why we were treated in this manner? He said: ‘We run our own “Goddam” country here, never mind England. England’s off the map.’ / told him that if that was the way they dealt with Britishers who had done their bit I would do no more. LOCKED IN CABIN. From the barracks we were returned on board the Niagara and we were placed under lock and key in our cabin until the ship had left Victoria, British Columbia. The next day the captain informed me that this was by orders of the Canadian Government. Then when we arrived at Honolulu I was again locked up in a cabin. My wife and children were allowed on deck but not permitted to go ashore. The excuse made by the Canadian authorities for our deportation was that we had stated we were going to settle in Canada, whereas our intention wafe to cross into the United States. They took the ‘dog in the manger’ attitude. They didn’t want us and they would not let the United States have us.” The ages of the, Nanearrow children range from two to eight years, and they ere now suffering from eye complaint alleged to have been acquired from dirty towels in the Vancouver immigration detention barracks. "The doctor of the Niagara told me that 1 would have to get the attention of a specialist or the children would go blind,” said Mr. Nanearrow, “therefore I will not be returning to Waihi but will have to stay in Auckland for a while.” The Waihi home of the family was sold to pay the passage to Canada, and every penny went. However, passengers on the’ Niagara, on learning of the unhappy adventure of the wayfarers, took up a collection, and over £BO was raised for their relief.