150.071 Control/158
The British Ambassador ( Lindsay ) to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary of State: I am enclosing with this letter a copy of a memorandum10 which on January 5th, 1932, I left with Mr. Stimson regarding a Bill which, under the Numbers S 7 and H. R. 4648 was at that time before the Senate and the House. As you will see from the memorandum it was a Bill which my Government felt would injure British shipping very seriously. The Bill never actually came to a vote in the House and died with the last Congress. Now it has been brought forward again by Senator King in the Senate and by Mr. Dies in the House, under the Numbers S 868 and H. R. 3842, and I understand that there is a possibility of its being brought to a vote in the House under a suspension of the rules.
The ostensible purpose of the Bill is merely to enforce added safeguards against the illicit immigration of racially excluded aliens into the United States—Chinese, Lascars and the like. At the same time, in so far as the prevention of such illicit immigration is concerned, my information is that at United States ports Oriental seamen are in any case already, under the existing regulations and practice, allowed to land only under restrictions, and are very generally prevented from landing at all. Meanwhile the effects of the bill would go far beyond its ostensible purpose and the considerations advanced in the memorandum, of which I enclose a copy, should, I think, be convincing that its enactment would be out of harmony with the spirit in which the Economic Conference should enter on its labours.
Believe me [etc.]