3T6 



IMMIGRATION BUREAU. 



INDIA. 



in any community. The rigor of our immigra- 

 tion laws has resulted in many ingenious devices 

 on the part of foreigners to avoid their operation. 

 Some of the most objectionable classes are se- 

 curing cabin transportation to escape the vigilant 

 inspection exercised over the steerage a fact 

 which points to the necessity of requiring from 

 steamship companies complete manifests of all 

 foreign passengers, whether traveling first or 

 second class or in the steerage. Others gain ad- 

 mission by booking on board ships as seamen 

 merely to be discharged at American ports and 

 landed by foreign consuls, in accordance with the 

 laws of navigation and treaty agreements between 

 the United States and their respective countries. 

 A more flagrant abuse is the fraudulent securing 

 of naturalization papers by persons who then 

 claim the custody of their alleged families, such 

 action being taken after the latter had been re- 

 fused a landing because they belonged to some 

 class expressly excluded by la\v. Instances of 

 this kind caused trouble repeatedly during the 

 past year. 



It is recommended by the Commissioner of Im- 

 migration that an alien on landing be required 

 to state whether it is his ultimate intention to 

 renounce allegiance to his own country; his af- 

 firmative answer to this question to be entered 

 of record and used at the expiration of five years' 

 residence in verifying his asserted right to natu- 

 ralization. Canada continues to present an open 

 door for the return of aliens who have been ex- 

 cluded from the United States. Contract labor- 

 ers enter our ports alleging that their destina- 

 tion is Canada, travel thither, and immediately 

 return across the boundary. In addition to this 

 fraudulent practice, our people are subjected to 

 still more injurious foreign contact, for there is 

 practically no rejection of diseased persons at 

 Canadian ports. The only remedy for these evils 

 appears to be the withdrawal of our officials from 

 these ports, to locate them at certain selected 

 points along our northern boundary, through 

 which border stations alone should aliens be ad- 

 mitted. A similar carelessness or incompetence 

 in the medical inspection maintained at trans- 

 atlantic ports has resulted in the embarkation 

 for the United States of a number of diseased 

 immigrants (most notably those afflicted with 

 contagious trachoma or granulated eyelids), and 

 request has been made that surgeons of the 

 United States Marine-Hospital Service, whose 

 ability and energy in maintaining a strict quar- 

 antine have been thoroughly tested during sea- 

 sons of dangerous epidemics, be sent abroad to 

 examine into the physical condition of foreigners 

 desiring to come to this country. 



The annexation of Hawaii without a previous 

 change in the municipal legislation of those 

 islands except the extension thereto of the Chi- 

 nese-exclusion act threatens to complicate fur- 

 ther the work of regulating immigration to this 

 country. It has been ascertained that since July 

 7, 1898, 25,000 Japanese have been brought to 

 Hawaii under contract to work on the sugar 

 plantations; and it is asserted that members of 

 the Territorial Government have been making 

 arrangements with the officials of Italy for an 

 unlimited importation of Italian peasants. This 

 indiscriminate introduction of the lowest class 

 of aliens into a Territory of the United States is 

 a menace to our people which fills the Immigra- 

 tion Bureau with grave apprehension, and it asks 

 to be authorized to examine and reject, at its 

 discretion, all foreigners coming to our shores 

 from Hawaii, although they may claim to be 

 residents of that Territory. Cuba, Puerto Rico, 



and the Philippines are already subjected to im- 

 migration regulations under military authority,, 

 and it is believed that no embarrassment will 

 arise in the handling of immigrants therefrom 

 when civil governments have been established in 

 those islands. 



INDIA, an empire in southern Asia, under the 

 sovereignty of the Queen of Great Britain and 

 Ireland on the basis of a personal union, and 

 governed under general acts of the British Par- 

 liament by a Governor General in consultation 

 with and under instructions from the Secretary 

 of State for India in the British Cabinet. The 

 Governor General, or Viceroy, is advised by a 

 Council of 5 ordinary members, besides the com- 

 mander in chief of the forces, who are appointed 

 for five years. The Legislative Council, which 

 is composed of the members of the Governor Gen- 

 eral's Council and 16 additional members ap- 

 pointed by the Governor General on the recom- 

 mendation of certain public bodies, has power to 

 make laws, subject to the approval of the Gov- 

 ernor General and the Secretary of State, for all 

 persons within British India, for all British sub- 

 jects in the native states, and for native Indian 

 subjects of the Queen in all parts of the world. 

 British India is divided for purposes of adminis- 

 tration into the presidencies of Madras and Bom- 

 bay, each of which has a Governor, the lieutenant 

 governships of Bengal, the Northwest Provinces 

 and Oudh, the Punjab, and Burmah, and the chief 

 commissionerships of Assam and the Central 

 Provinces. Each of the governors and lieutenant 

 governors has his Legislative Council, those for 

 the Punjab and Burmah having been established 

 in 1898. 



The Governor General is George Nathaniel 

 Curzon, created Baron Curzon of Kedleston, who 

 was appointed to succeed the Earl of Elgin in 

 September, 1898. The members of the Supreme 

 Council in the beginning of 1899 were Sir James 

 Westland, M. D. Chalmers, Major-Gen. Sir E. H. 

 H. Collen, Sir A. C. Trevor, C. M. Rivaz, and C. 

 E. Dawkins. The commander in chief of the 

 forces was Gen. W. G. S. Lockhart. Sir A. E. 

 Havelock was Governor of Madras, Lord Sand- 

 hurst Governor of Bombay, Sir John Woodburn 

 Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, Sir A. P. Mac- 

 Donnell Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest 

 Provinces and Oudh, Sir W. M. Young Lieutenant 

 Governor of the Punjab, and Sir F. W. R. Fryer 

 Lieutenant .Governor of Burmah. 



Area and Population. British India com- 

 prises Bengal, with Orissa, Behar, and Chota Nag- 

 pur; Bombay and Sind, with Aden; Madras; the- 

 Northwest Provinces and Oudh; the Punjab; 

 Lower and Upper Burmah ; the Central Provinces ; 

 Assam; the minor provinces of Ajmere-Merwara, 

 Coorg, British Baluchistan, and the Andaman 

 Islands; and the Berars, temporarily under Brit- 

 ish administration. The total area is 964,993 

 square miles, and the population in 1891 was 221,- 

 172,952, of whom 112,542,739 were males and 108,- 

 630,213 females. The native states under Brit- 

 ish control are Hyderabad; Baroda; Mysore, re- 

 stored to native rule in 1881; Kashmir; the 

 Rajputana states, chief of which are Udaipur, 

 Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jaipur and its feudatories, 

 Bhartpur, Dholpur, Alwar, Jhalawar, Tonk, and 

 Kotah; the Bombay states, of which the princi- 

 pal ones are Cutch, Kholhapur and dependencies, 

 and Khairpur in Sind; the Madras states of 

 Travancore and Cochin; Bastar and other states 

 in the Central Provinces ; the Central India states 

 of Indore, Rewa, Bhopal, Gwalior, and minor 

 states; Kuch Behar, Hill Tipperah, and numerous 

 other Bengal states ; Rampur, Garhwal, and other 



