CO129-376 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1911 [3-4] — Page 181

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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