A “WHITE AUSTRALIA”

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 9, 8 December 1926, Page 14

A “WHITE AUSTRALIA”

PROHIBITED IMMIGRANTS. PROSECUTION OF A CHINESE. IMPORTANT APPEAL CASE. The question of preserving Australia for white races was referred to by the High Court in Sydney in an appeal case recently, when a reserved decision was given in the appeal by Clifford Williamson, customs officer, from a decision of the magistrate in Perth, in which he declined to convict Ah On, a Chinese, as a prohibited immigrant. A majority of the Court—the Chief Justice and Mr Justice Gavan Duffy dissenting—held that Ah On should have been convicted as a prohibited immigrant. Ah On was arrested by Williamson in the streets of Perth in October, 1925, and questioned regarding the date on which he had arrived in Australia. Ah On was then taken to a Government office and asked to write from dictation. He was not equal to the task. He was again proceeded against on a charge of being a prohibited immigrant and having failed to pass the dictation test within three years of his arrival in the Commonwealth. Ah On was convicted, but the conviction was set aside by the Full Court of West Australia. In May last he was brought before a magistrate on a charge of being a prohibited immigrant, in that he had failed to pass the dictation test. The magistrate held that ho was bound by the judgment of the Full Court of West Australia. The information was therefore dismissed. The Commonwealth appealed to the High Court, on the grounds, among others, that the magistrate was wrong in dismissing the complaint, and that the judgment of the Full' Court of West Australia in .the case of Hough and Ah Wing, by which the magistrate considered himself bound, was wrong in law. The question before the Court when the matter was argued in Melbourne, was whether certain provisions contained in the Immigration Act were valid. The Chief Justice, Sir Adrian Knox, and Mr Justice Gavan Duffy said they had come to the conclusion that the provisions were valid, as they were not within the competence of the Commonwealth to enact. In their opinion the appeal should be dismissed. Mr Justice Isaacs said that the importance of the case against Ah On was not easily measured. On it depended the power of the National Government to give effect to what was known as the White Australia policy. Experience had compelled America and self-governing communities of the Empire to make stringent laws in order to safeguard the race, the social and industrial conditions, and to maintain their standard of living. The provision of the immigration law

were necessary to prevent the' fraudulent evasion of the law by persons who were smuggled into the country, and were only discovered, if ever, with difficulty. Mr Justice Higgins, Mr Justice Rich, Mr Justice Powers and Mr Justice Starke concurred with Mr Justice Isaacs. The order of the Court was that tho case should bo remitted to tho Perth Police Court, with the opinion of tho High Court that Ah On should have been convicted, tho case to be dealt with by the Police Court consistently with this judgment.