PETITION BY MIGRANTS

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1932, Page 9

PETITION BY MIGRANTS

CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA BLAME CAST QN GOVERNMENT DISMAL PICTURE. DRAWN MB. LATHAM MAKES REPLY By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, April 13. Mr. J. G. Latham, Federal AttorneyGeneral, has issued a Press reply to a petition signed by 50,000 migrants to Australia which Mr. J. McGovern (Labour, Shettleston) presented to the House of Commons. The petitioners contended that they left their homes in Britain owing to “extravagant, misleading and in many cases indubitably false propaganda by the Australian Governments.”

Many of the signatories are now reduced to misery, semi-starvation and despair, and suicides are frequent,” says the petition. “Some have lost their reason, young women have sold their virtue, and men are herded into camps under conditions hardly better than convicts.”

Mr. Latham points out that assisted migration had been practically suspended since the beginning of 1930. There was unemployment and distress in every country. A large majority of the migrants went on relatives’ and friends nominations, and it was improper to suggest that any Government was responsible for their migration. When the depression, accentuated by the drop in prices, became grave assisted migration was suspended. Many migrants who had returned to England were now seeking facilities to return to Australia, having found opportunities and prospects in Britain at least no better than in Australia. Many of the petition’s statements were exaggerated or without foundation. Migrants had been given the same unemployment relief as Australians.