Speech #630378327

If the Senator from New Hampshire will allow me. the committee proposes to strike out section 11. which the House incorporated in the bill. providing that matrons. inspectors. and surgeons shall be placed upon foreign vessels at the port of embarkation to inspect and to exercise quasi official power in regard to the sanitation and inspection of immigrants. I think the Senator was absent at the time when I read the list of the countries who protested against this procedure. in that it was interfering with the exercise of their rights on the high seas. In view of the protests that came to us from those Governments sent through the proper department of our Government. the committee thought it was best to strike out the section and insert a substitute. as we have no power to enforce the section as passed by the House. as we could do nothIng except to prohibit immigration or to fine the vessel. which would lead to international complications. There are letters here from the State Department. and they were placed before the committee. that the House committee. before it incorporated this language. had no way of obtaining. because those Governments were not advised of what was proposed in the legislation until such time as the bill was reported to the House. Therefore our committee. wishing to put into force the provision. the object being to reachthese undesirable and diseased individuals. just rewrote section 11 under the advice of the Immigration Bureau of the Department of Labor. together with the advice of our Department of State. We rewrote the section so as to accomplish really what we intended by placing proper restrictions at the port of entry within our territorial waters. where we have jurisdiction over the subject matter.