24 AUGUST 1889, Page 3

Reuter's telegrams from America describe the landing of twenty Arabs

at New York. At present, these strange immi- grants are detained at Castle Garden, pending inquiries whether they are to be allowed to remain or to be sent back. Should they be admitted, it is reported that seventy thousand more Arabs who are now waiting to cross the Atlantic, will embark for the United States. If this is true, the American people have a very troublesome problem before them. It is difficult to see on what theoretical grounds they can refuse to let the Arabs land, and yet the introduction of such a new element into a population where the race question is already sufficiently complicated by the Negroes, the Indians, and the Chinese, could not well be sanctioned without misgivings. When the suppression of Mormonism has proved so difficult a task in Utah, it would surely seem unwise to allow the entrance of seventy thousand more polygamists. Probably, however, the matter, if it ever arises, will be settled on a side-issue. The Federal Law obliges all immigrants to have in their possession enough money to prevent them becoming a charge upon the com- munity. It is inconceivable, that any but a very limited number of Arabs anxious to emigrate would be in a position to comply with such a regulation.