ALARM AT INFLUX OF ALIENS TO NEW ZEALAND

Wanganui Chronicle, 6 March 1947, Page 5

ALARM AT INFLUX OF ALIENS TO NEW ZEALAND

(P.A.) Dunedin, March 5. Alarm at tlie influx of aliens into New Zealand was expressed by all members of the executive of the Dunedin branch of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Association to-night, when it was decided to send a letter to the Dominion Executive of the association containing the views of the Dunedin executive on the subject.

According to a resolution passed, member s were of the opinion that the 2nd. N.Z.E.F. Association should press for a Government statement on the whole question of refugees, and any European immigration into New Zealand. It was unanimously considered that the details of the numbers, circumstances, prospective employment pnd the like of such immigrants should be made public, for instance, by Gazette notice. The executive believed that the whole problem of alien immigration, and the principles which control it, were of such importance as to merit the establishing of a Royal Commission to inquire into the basis on which these people were admitted to the country, and whether it was in the interests of returned servicemen that they should be admitted at all. The resolution concluded:

“The executive considers that a minority of Italians, Austrians and Germans, etc., wields to-day an influence in New Zealand affairs out of all proportion to its size, that it has the ear of those in places who can do most to help it,, and that this minority is being assisted to the detriment of returned servicemen.”