L
173
A notice was circulated in July 1909 among the
Chinese of the Colony warning them of the restrictions
on the immigration of Chinese into Australia. Stowaways
are liable to a fine of 200 dollars or four weeks im-
prisonment and the Governor is prepared to ask the
Legislature to increase the penalties for stowing away,
but he points out that the policy of Australia in
excluding Chinese is entirely repugnant to the whole
community, European as well as Asiatic.
Any measure directly aimed at making criminal
an attempt to evade the Australian Immigration Act would
be opposed by the Legislative Council, would be forced
through by the votes of Official Members and would be
followed by a boycott of Australian trade at Singapore
with which it would be difficult to deal. It should
not be forgotten that a boycott of Australian trade might
easily develop into a boycott of British trade, a state
of affairs of which the numerous and influential body
of foreign merchants in Singapore would not be slow to
take advantage. Moreover any legislation in Singapore
might be evaded by a transfer to Java ports, as all ships
to Australia from Singapore call at Java ports.
The Governor of Hong Kong reports that, in the
opinion of his Attorney General, there already exists
sufficient legislation to deal with the offence of conspiring to evade the Immigration Restriction Act of
Australia. He states that in 1904 it was held by the
Supreme Court that there was no power to convict per- sons for conspiring in Hong Kong to evade the Immi- gration Laws of Australia and the Chief Justice gave it as his opinion that no indictment would lie for the
conspiracy to defraud the steamship company as there was no intention to evade payment of the fares. The Attorney general is, however, of opinion that proceedings
have