THE DAILY PROVINCE
MARCH 17, 1908

p. 1

NEARLY TWO HUNDRED HINDUS ARE
DEPORTED
-------------------------Order Against Almost Entire Party on Monteagle Came at Noon

-------------------WILL APPEAL TO COURTS
-----------------New Arrivals Not Identified as Persons Who Bought
Tickets in Calcutta
There will be one grand exodus of Hindus to-morrow for Hong Kong on the C.P.R.
steamship Empress of Japan, or if they cannot be accommodated on that vessel
they will leave on the next available boat – provided they are unable to knock out
in the courts the federal order in Council under which their deportation order was
signed at noon to-day.
One hundred and eighty-three Hindus who arrived at William Head several weeks
ago on the steamship Monteagle were detained there because of smallpox on the
vessel and did not reach Vancouver for examination till last Sunday are the men
ordered deported by Dr. Monro, federal immigration agent. The order, mandatory
upon the C.P.R. to take the men back to the Orient, was signed upon receipt of
instructions from Ottawa that all of them were excluded under the terms of the
order in Council requiring immigrants to come direct from the land of their birth
or citizenship.
Will Take It to Courts
To-morrow morning the Empress of Japan will leave for Hong Kong and should it
be decided that no fight will be instituted in the courts to enable the Hindus to land
some of them may go out on that steamship. It is not believed, however, that the
C.P.R. will willingly carry the Hindus back to Hong Kong, and it is fully expected

THE DAILY PROVINCE
MARCH 17, 1908

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that an appeal to the courts will be made on habeas corpus proceedings, which will
bring the order in Council to a supreme and final test.
It has developed that 78 of the Hindus who reached William Head on the
Monteagle arrived at Hong Kong from Calcutta on December 22, 1907, they
applied for transportation across the Pacific to Vancouver by the next C.P.R. boat
sailing, but were refused on the ground that all accommodations had been taken
by Chinese. The steamer they wanted to sail on left Hong Kong with but 283
Chinese in the steerage but no Hindus were accepted. The result was that these 78
were held at Hong Kong for a month. The reason for their deportation is that the
federal Government holds that the delay at Hong Kong was fatal to their claim to
come to Vancouver direct from the land of their birth.
One Parsee Goes Through
The reason for the deportation for the other one hundred and five Hindus ex
Monteagle is that Ottawa is not satisfied that they are the men who left Calcutta for
Vancouver in the original instance – in other words the Hindus are unable to prove
that they are the men who purchased in Calcutta transportation for Vancouver,
and so they are in conflict with the provisions of the order in Council.
But one turbaned passenger by the Monteagle, a Parsee, escaped deportation and
only because he was booked through to New York and was accepted by the United
States immigration officials for entrance to that country. All the other Hindus are
now housed in the Dominion Government detention shed on the C.P.R. wharf.
Now It’s Dominion Order
“What period of time constitutes residence?”
That is the question raised in the latest Hindu immigration official “holdup,” a
question which Chief Justice Hunter will decide to-morrow.
The decision might have been given to-day but for a preliminary legal skirmish
well executed by Mr. Elmer Jones, who secured an adjournment with the right to
cross-examine the ten Hindus involved in the case upon their joint affidavit.

THE DAILY PROVINCE
MARCH 17, 1908

p. 1

That solemn oath was to the effect that Suva was their place of residence. Mr.
Jones, acting for the Dominion Immigration officials who have refused the Hindus a
landing, will ascertain the period of that “residence” and the court will decide its
sufficiency.
On the ground that they had not come “from the country of their citizenship” the
Dominion officers ordered these Hindus to be detained with the object of
deporting them. On their behalf Mr. Brydon-Jack now seeks an order of habeas
corpus.