ALINENS TAKING CONTROL

Taranaki Daily News, 13 June 1930, Page 9

ALINENS TAKING CONTROL

MENACE IN QUEENSLAND ■ ITALIANS’ BIG HOLDINGS MINISTER CONTRADICTED By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 8.25 p.m. Sydney, June 12. A message from Townsville, Queensland, states that derisive comment has been occasioned by Mr. Forde’s statement cabled yesterday as acting Minister of Customs that at least 75 per cent of the sugar mill and field workers in northern Queensland are British. Local statistics disclose that the whole sugar industry north of Townsville is in the hands of aliens. As an instance of the steady growth of the alien population in Northern Queensland it is stated that in the Ayr district 43 cane farms valued at £1,500,009 have passed from British to Italian control or ownership, the Italians working on a community basis. Sixty farms 'in the Tully district, which hitherto had been leased to British subjects, have also passed into the hands of aliens. The London Times reports, according to a cablegram, that the news from Queensland has naturally caused some irritation in Italy. Writing in the Popolo d’ltalia under the heading “Egotism Overseas,” Signor Arnaldo Mussolini, the Duce’s brother, declares that the agitation against Italian labourers is symptomatic of the attitude of the Dominions. Australia is a big country and work in the interior is disliked by the Australians, nor will they allow other people to do it. British unemployed do not care to go either to Australia nor to Canada. They prefer to remain in England and receive the dole. This is contrary to the old noble traditions of Britain.