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Decision to admit the families of resident Indian men as migrants
In continuation of my letter No.835-S, dated the 30th May 1921, I am directed to state that the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia has accepted Resolution XXI passed by the Imperial War Conference, 1918, and, in order to give effect to it, has agreed to adopt the following procedure regulating the admission into Australia of the wives and minor children of domiciled Indians.
2. The husband or father resident in Australia, who desires to obtain a certificate of relationship from a magistrate in India in order to secure the admission into the Commonwealth of his wife or minor children should, in the first instance, apply in the prescribed form to the immigration authorities or to the local magistrate in Australia for a certificate that he is at liberty to bring his wife or children from India into the country. Such a certificate, when obtained, should be transmitted by the husband or father to his wife or children in India, together with an application for a certificate of relationship signed by him for production before the principal local magistrate in India, viz., the Chief Presidency Magistrate in a Presidency Town, the Political Officer in an Indian State, or the District Magistrate elsewhere. The principal local magistrate in India, on receipt of such an application, and on production before him
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of the certificate issued in Australia, will institute an enquiry, either personally or through an officer not below the rank of a third-class magistrate, regarding the truth of the facts stated in the application. If he is satisfied as to the alleged relationship, he will grant a certificate of relationship in the form appended to this letter. This certificate should be handed over to the persons who have applied for it and should be presented by them to the immigration authorities at the port of entry in Australia.
3. It has been decided that Indians need not supply photographs of their wives and children when applying for permission to bring them into Australia. In the absence of such photographs, it is desirable that, as far as possible, effective means of identification may be indicated on the certificate of relationship. Where the necessity arises for direct correspondence on the subject of the admission of the wives and minor children of domiciled Indians into Australia, the Commonwealth Department of Home and Territories has been instructed to correspond direct with the Chief Secretaries of Local Governments, and with the Agents to the Governor General of Residents in charge of Indian States.
4. I am to add that the Commonwealth Government have also agreed that Indian merchants, students or tourists with their wives should be admitted to the Commonwealth on passports and permitted to remain there indefinitely so long as they continue in the capacity in respect of which their passport was issued. In order that there may be no doubt as to the meaning which the Commonwealth Government attaches to the term
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“merchant” that Government has explained that it does not consider the term to cover retail shop-keepers as such, or hawkers, but that its application is confined to persons engaged in the wholesale oversea [sic] trade between India and Australia.
