ELLIS ISLAND.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17078, 16 April 1927, Page 11

ELLIS ISLAND.

4 A SHAMBLES OF SOULS.”

WOMEN STRIPPED AND THUMPED.

(From a Correspondent.)

NEW YORK, March 1

Mr John Walker Harrington, an able American investigator, paints in the current Forum, for the enlightenment of his “happy and native-born” compatriots, a picture of Ellis Island which stands in ■ drastic contrast with the official eulogies of that jnuch-hated institution. He denounces its workings as “a national disgrace.” After noting the improvements effected, by steamship companies in recent years for the comfort of third class passengers he accompanies in imagination the journey of these unfortunate pilgrims to the island “where men are stripped down to the buff entirely and women nude to the girdle are scanned and thumped by practitioners of their own sexes.”

“You are near-sighted," rasps an inspector, glancing up at a young Englishwoman. “Likely to become a public charge. What have you to say?” “My vision is good,” she responds brightly. “I have some means of my own. I am on my way to Boston to teach in a college for women.” “That’s all very well, madam. What would you do if you broke your spectacles? You could not see, could not earn a living.” “I fancy I could, if I may say so,” she dissents. “I could get a new pair of glasses.” “Suppose you had no money. You would not be able to buy anything. Law T is very explicit. You are held pending decision by a Board of Special Inquiry. Take your baggage and go.” Detention Quarters. Mr Harrington narrates many other instances illustrative of the hide-bound* 1 attitude of the immigration officials and : of the mental agony of the immigrants j as their s fatc is dealt out to them in i the form of cards pinned . to their ! breasts and bearing initials such as | “5.1.” (Special Inquiry), “T.D.” (Temporarily Detained), or "T.A.” (Travellers’ Aid). As soon as they are sorted out “detained” immigrants become virtual prisoners in a huge hall known as “Detention Quarters.” A guard undoes the door and locks it again after they have crossed the threshold. At one end of the room sits a matron, a i woman turnkey, ready with rebuke if 1 any stray. Under lock and key these | aliens wait. They may send telegrams to relatives, but may not use a telephone. 1 After an unsavoury description of the meals “enjoyed” by the inmates of Ellis Island Mr Harrington proceeds— j “Lodging on Ellis Island is about as : pleasant as steerage was many years | ago. Women and very young children ; sleep in big dormitories in single- j deck beds, and may have screens drawn about them if privacy is desired. Men and boys are assigned to quarters with two-decker beds, bunk-house style. The blankets arc sterilised daily and the sheets changed at least when a new lodger inhabits them. Curfew rings at nine o’clock for all, even for first class passengers sometimes .detained in private rooms. “The dormitory windows are netted with heavy wire mesh—in reality bars —through which Liberty’s torch is seen by the ‘twilight’s last gleaming.' . . . In another division under armed guards are felons and criminals awaiting deportation.” Self-respect Slain. But the physical discomforts of Ellis Island are as nothing, in the writer's opinion, to the tortures inflicted by unimaginative officials. He says—many aliens is weighed in the balance “The tribunals where the fate of so many aliens is weighed in the balance are composed of inspectors who apply or misapply the mass of uncodifled rulings which govern the disposition of the immigrants. To those who may have the slightest technical shortcomings in their visas the boards show no .mercy. . . . And you mayask,'as many do, ‘What of the Commissioner of Immigration in charge of the station at Ellis Island? Can he do nothing to free fellow-beings from the grip of the red tentacles of this Octopus of Officialdom?’ Know then that the amiable Commissioner has no judicial power—only keeper of a dark gaol and a third rate hotel is he. If there be an appeal in these cases it lies not with him, nor yet with the Commissioner-General of Immigration, but with the Secretary of Labour at Washington, to whose department the Bureau of Immigration is officially surrendered. At least a week is required for the necessary papers to be sent to Washington, pass through the machinery and come back, without making any allowances for the study of cases by the Secretary himself. . . . When days and weeks pass and appeals lag, many abandon both appeal and hope. “Between the treatment of those whom she bars or deports and of those to whom she gives her grudging consent to enter Ellis Island makes no I perceptible distinctions .of manner. It j is enough that immigrants are not ! beaten or robbed. That is the secret attitude. See how kind everybody is, for here are placards everywhere (dated 1010) stating that aliens arc not to be abused. Dark detention pens have been abolished, yet the old system which slays self-respect still ! abides. Less like a slaughter house j in its internal plan is Ellis Island, yet ! aaone the less a shambles of souls.”