On Friday week the Australian Federal Premier intro- duced the
amended Immigration Bills into the Commonwealth House of Representatives. The first Bill empowers the Commonwealth, by means of treaties with other Govern- ments, to arrange that merchants and tourists shall travel in the country under passports. The second provides that work- men under contract may be admitted, if the contract is in writing and approved by the Minister concerned. The con- ditions of such approval are that the workman is not imported to interfere in an industrial dispute, that the employer is unable to obtain within the country an employe equally skilled, and that the contract wages are the same as those current in Australia among workers of a similar class. The Bill does not apply to domestic servants. These amendments of the present system are still far short of what we desire to see, and what we believe to be Australia's true interest, but they mark, at any rate, an advance. Mr. Deakin in his intro- ductory speech explained that, while carrying out the "white Australia" policy, he did not wish to cast a slur on any other people, and in particular wished to avoid hurting the suscepti- bilities of British Indians and Japanese, in one case subjects, in the other allies, of the British Empire.
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