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9
solemn circumstances, is common knowledge to all
whose duty compels their attendance at Worship
Street Police Court.
The following extract is taken from the British
Medical Journal of March 24th, 1906:—
THE ABROGATION OF THE ALIENS ACT.
The Home Secretary has issued an Order directing that whereas
formerly on the grounds of economy, small batches of aliens—that
is to say, batches numbering less than thirteen—were allowed to
land without inspection, that number shall now be raised to twenty.
The cost of applying the Act to every port where ships might
arrive with one or two foreigners would have been enormous and
quite unnecessary. The alien laws are directed chiefly, if not
entirely, against the wave of immigration through Riga, Bremen
and Hamburg to this country. They would not have been enacted
had it not been for the fact that America, by selecting the best for
herself, leaves the worst class for England. By a judicious
observation of the arrivals on non-immigrant ships, it would have
been easy to have named the lines trafficking in undesirables, and to
have brought these lines under the Act by special order. The
naming of any single line would have certainly acted as a powerful
deterrent to others from indulging in the same class of traffic, as
the delay occasioned by inspection means a loss which cannot be
covered by the passage money of some dozen immigrants. With
this power in his hands, with the knowledge that Russian
undesirables are, in fact, being brought over in small numbers, and
can only be stopped by the moral effect in the ports of embarkation
of rigid measures at home, the action taken by the Secretary of
State is very open to criticism. By raising the number of
undesirables that a ship may bring with impunity from 12 to 20, he
has relieved the minds of the less scrupulous ship-owners of any
fears they may have entertained as to the consequences of bringing
the leavings of regular immigrant lines. By a memorandum to
immigration officers he has expressed a desire which is tantamount
to an order, that leave to land should be given to any immigrants
who allege they are flying from persecution in disturbed districts,
and that where any doubt exists as to the truth of an alien's statement
to this effect, the benefit of the doubt should be given to the
alien. Medical inspectors are asked to be mindful of the fact that