[Editor: This article, regarding the Immigration Restriction Bill, was published in The Age (Melbourne, Vic.), 29 October 1901. When it became law, the Immigration Restriction Act formed the foundation of the White Australia Policy.]
Immigration Restriction Bill.
The Attorney-General has received a copy of interesting references to the Immigration Restriction Bill from the “Birmingham Daily Post,” which is regarded as the organ of Mr. Chamberlain. Mr. Deakin observes that the comments by the “Post,” which are appended, are good evidence of the keen interest taken in this legislation by the people of England:—
“A somewhat singular situation has been created by the simultaneous but divergent action of the Canadian and Australian Federal Governments in regard to alien immigration.
It is announced from Ottawa that, at the instance of the home Government, after a representation from Japan, the Dominion Government has disallowed two British Columbia provincial bills affecting Chinese and Japanese immigration. One of these measures set up an educational test, which had for its object the exclusion of Chinese and Japanese, while the other forbade their employment on certain works in the province; and, seeing that the ground for their disallowal was that they were in violation of the interests of the Empire, it is striking to find that Mr. A. Deakin, the Attorney-General for the Australian Commonwealth, defended in the Federal House of Representatives the exclusion from Australia of Asiatics who are not British subjects, on the ground that ‘Mr. Chamberlain has said that the Japanese, or any other Government, cannot object to the educational test, and if it is not sufficiently inclusive it can be made higher.’
The whole question is one upon which we shall hear more, and that not only from Australia and Canada, for the further declaration of Mr. Deakin that it was not intended to exclude Scandinavians, Germans or other white people of their calibre from the newly-formed Commonwealth is of the greater interest in view of the growing movement in the United States — which has received much impetus from the Buffalo outrage of a week ago — for excluding Poles, Hungarians and Italians from the list of allowable immigrants, while still leaving open the door for the Anglo-Saxon, the Scandinavian and the German.”
Source:
The Age (Melbourne, Vic.), 29 October 1901, p. 6
Also published in:
The Ballarat Star (Ballarat, Vic.), 30 October 1901, p. 3
Editor’s notes:
The quoted text from the Birmingham Daily Post has been put into a blockquote, to distinguish the quoted text as a distinct item.
A. Deakin = Alfred Deakin (1856-1919) Victorian parliamentarian 1879-1900, federal parliamentarian 1901-1913, and second Prime Minister of Australia (he served for three separate terms as Prime Minister: 1903-1904, 1905-1908, and 1909-1910); he was born in Collingwood (Melbourne, Vic.) in 1856, and died in South Yarra (Melbourne, Vic.) in 1919
See: 1) R. Norris, “Alfred Deakin (1856–1919)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Death of Mr. Deakin: Brilliant career ends: Thrice Prime Minister”, The Herald (Melbourne, Vic.), 7 October 1919, p. 1
3) “Alfred Deakin”, Wikipedia
Australian Commonwealth = the Commonwealth of Australia; the Australian nation, federated on 1 January 1901
Bill = a proposed law, or an amendment to an existing law
See: “Bill (law)”, Wikipedia
British Columbia = a province of Canada
See: “British Columbia”, Wikipedia
the Buffalo outrage = the assassination of William McKinley, President of the United States; McKinley was shot in Buffalo (New York) on 6 September 1901 by Leon Czolgosz, an American anarchist, and McKinley subsequently died on 14 September 1901 from gangrene caused by the bullet wounds
See: 1) “William McKinley Assassination: Topics in Chronicling America”, Library of Congress
2) “Assassination of William McKinley”, Wikipedia
3) “William McKinley”, Wikipedia
Chamberlain = Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), British politician; he was born in Camberwell (Surrey, England) in 1836, served as the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for the Colonies (1895-1903), and died in Birmingham (England) in 1914
See: “Joseph Chamberlain”, Wikipedia
Commonwealth = the Commonwealth of Australia; the Australian nation, federated on 1 January 1901
Deakin = [see: A. Deakin]
the Dominion = Canada, formally known as the Dominion of Canada; in the context of the British Empire, the term “Dominion” could refer to any one of the British Dominions (Australia, Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, New Zealand, and South Africa), being those countries of the British Empire which were self-governing, however, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the term “the Dominion” was usually a reference to Canada
See: 1) “Dominion of Canada”, The Canadian Encyclopedia, 7 February 2006 (updated 7 November 2019)
2) “Dominion”, Wikipedia
Empire = in the context of early Australia, the British Empire
See: “British Empire”, Wikipedia
home Government = (usually capitalised: Home Government) in an historical Australian context, the British government
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