The Commission appointed to report on the influx of China-
men into California has reported that the influx is injurious. The Chinese are declared to be foully immoral, to avoid inter- marriage, to herd together in separate quarters, in which they defy all sanitary laws, and to return invariably with their savings to their own country. They undersell the white labourers, and, moreover, make labour discreditable, while if they were admitted as citizens their vote would be powerful enough to control the State. Th ey govern themselves, it is added, by secret societies, which do not hesitate to inffict the penalty of death. Congress is therefore asked to revise the Treaty with China, so as to allow of restric- tions on emigration. No problem is more puzzling than this of Chinese immigration. It is most unjust to refuse to an over- crowded nation its share of the world, yet most unwise to let a people of lower civilisation and morality eat out a race of a higher type. One reform we think both America and Australia might fairly insist on. If the Chinese are to come in hordes as immigrants, and not as mere visitors, they might insist on the Indian emigration law that there must be some reasonable pro- portion between the sexes. We do not see, either, why a sharp sanitary law against the exportation of human corpses from Cali- fornia would be unjust or contrary to the treaty. That would rid the States of the very lowest class of emigrant, who never will come without a contract that if he dies his body shall be sent back to China.
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