We note with the greatest possible misgiving the announce- ment
that the Unionist leaders "have determined to place• before the country their policy in regard to alien immigra.• tion." Lord Salisbury intends, it is said, to introduce a Bill on the subject into the House of Lords. If this means that the Conservatives are to be committed to a policy of restriction, and we fail to see what else it can mean, a more unfortunate step could not have been taken.. No real case can be made out for excluding any alien im- migrants not convicted of Anarchist designs. The Jews. do not come on the rates, and, except in a very small degree, they do not interfere with home labour. The reason is that they carry on industries which, without them, would be non-existent. To exclude them would be a gross, act of cruelty, and might well lead to reprisals of a kind which would have the most injurious effects upon this country.. If it could be shown that great sanitary evils flowed from• allowing alien immigration, the case would of course be dif- ferent ; but as yet that has never been proved.
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