17 APRIL 1982, Page 13

One hundred years ago

The great contest in the United States over the admission of Chinese im- migrants is not over yet. Both Senate and House of Representatives passed by large majorities a Bill suspending the ad- mission of Chinamen for 20 years, and it was fully expected to become law. The Chinese Embassy, however, declared that the Bill went far beyond anything they had intended by the recent Treaty; that they might be obliged to quit Washington; and that their Government would lay restrictions on American com- merce. The great employers of labour also remonstrated, and a feeling was ex- pressed in the older States that the Government was departing too far from its old principle of affording shelter to

all men. Spectator, 15 April 1882