I find that tile substitute reported by the Senate conittee obviates some of the objections made by the committee of the chamber of commerce. which has been read. In the second place. I want to call attention to the fact that the provision relating to te terminalion of obligations in our treaties for the arrest and imprisonment of deserters. couplei with the repeal of the provision for arrest. really ought to be guarded if we are not to open the door to serious abuses in the way of immigration without the restriction afforded by the supervision and the administration of the immigration laws. The desertion of seamen has already been the means. in many instances. to a very considerable degree of evading the lilitationsimposed by our immigration laws. and I regret to see all the treaties and statutes under which we now prevent a stream of imlnigrants coining in who do not comply with the requirements of our immigration act wiped out. without some substitute. I do not know what is to stand in the way of a general Asiatic immigration on the Pacific coaist. unless we create some machinery to take the place of the machinery of the immigration bureau for ordinary immigration. Of course. if it appears that ships can come across the seas with large crews. who are at liberty to desert and are not silject to any inspection or practical restriction. such as they would be subject to if they came in the steerage of a passenger ship. the news will soon spread in China. and the Senator from Caiiifornia will find questions asked him as to why he consented to a statute that left hisocoast without protection from that kind of immigration.
Keywords matched
steerage immigration Asiatic