Speech #790105921

The statement is by Mr. Edward J. Shaughnessy. special assistant to the Commissioner of Immigration. as follows: Prior to the act of February 5. 1917. there was no restriction against the coming to the United States of East Indians. In the 1917 act (which is frequently referred to as the basic exclusion act) a socalled geographical area was proscribed and a provision included in the act to the effect that persons born in this area. with certain very limited exceptions. could not migrate to the United States. This proscribed area included all of India and other parts of the Orient. China and Japan had been otherwise taken care of by treaty and agreement. The barred zone provisions. like the Chinese exclusion laws. became practically useless with the advent of the 1924 Quota Act. because that act provides that persons of races ineligible to citizenship. with certain very limited exceptions. shall not be admitted to the United States.. The Chinese exclusion laws were repealed in the Seventyeighth Congress by the act approved December 17. 1943. All that act did was to grant a quota of 105 per annum to persons of the Chinese race and to make such persons racially eligible for naturalization. You will recall that prior to this time the only persons. generally speaking. racially eligible for naturalization were persofns of the white race. African black race. and Western Hemisphere Indians. The act relating to Chinese made persons of that race ineligible to naturalization. The bill under discussion makes persons of the East Indian race eligible for naturalization. The bill is not quite as broad as the Chinese Act because the latter act created a quota of 105 a year for persons of the Chinese race. in addition to the quota of 109 per annum for China which covers persons other than Chinese. but racially eligible to naturalization. who are born in China. All this bill does is to make a person of the East Indian race eligible to come in under the existing quota of 100 for Indiaso he takes his chances along with persons racially eligible to naturalization who are born in India. Likewise. the bill is not as broad as the Chinese Act because there are some 45.000 Chinese aliens in the United States. whereas there is an estimated figure of less than 4.000 East Indians In the United States. Another distinct feature which appears in both the Chinese Act and this bill is that persons coming under them are chargeable to those small quotas regardless of where they may be born. except. of course. the United States. whereas. as to other quota immigrants. they are chargeable to the quotas of the countries in which they are born. or if born In most places in the Western Hemisphere. are nonquota aliens. not chargeable to any quota. The various combinations of races specifled in sections 1 and 3 of tle bill are included in the measure so as to safeguard against persons of mixed blood with minor degrees claiming the right of admissibility under the provisions of the bill. Further argument does not appear to be necessary because the reasons for the bill are contained In the report.