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[Capitalised and underlined] COPY 

Office of the Consul General for France in Australia 

Sydney, 12th. August, 1901. 

Sir, 

Referring to my letter of 20th. ultimo, the receipt of which you were good enough to acknowledge on the 29th. idem,– I now take the liberty of directing your attention to a Bill intituled "The Immigration Restriction Act", which may, if it becomes law, give rise to difficulties and justifiable complaints. 

Under the Bill in question, all immigrants are obliged to write, if requested to do so, some phrases in English language dictated by an Officer of the Government. 

The intention of the Commonwealth Government is evidently to apply this test only to those persons whose residence in Australia would reasonably appear undesirable, and recourse will be had to it only on exceptional cases; but the outside public will be ignorant of this intention when the text of the law is made known to them. 

The practical study of foreign languages is not common amongst the less educated classes, and even a large number of educated persons are ignorant of the English tongue. From which it results that foreigners (although I am now speaking only on behalf of the French) will come to the conclusion that they are practically prohibited from entering Australian territory, – in any case the risk of having to submit to the English Dictation test, and perhaps 

[Recipient’s address] 

The Right Honourable Edmund Barton, P.C., K.C., 

Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs, 

Melbourne. 

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perhaps without success, will divert from this country many honest, industrious, and even educated immigrants, whose presence here would be both desirable and useful. 

From a diplomatic point of view, also, a measure of this kind may give rise to objections; in fact, although no special treaty in regard to settlement exists between Great Britain and France, the relations of the two countries for nearly a century have been established on the principle of reciprocal liberty of settlement; and a law passed by one of the two countries, requiring the people of the other, on their arrival in the foreign country to know the language of that country, would constitute a grave blow at this principle. 

The preceding observations are inspired solely by a desire to maintain friendly relations, and I would ask your kind consideration of them. They are not made in any way in an official manner, firstly because they refer only to a projected law, and secondly, the Bill being of recent date, I have not been able to receive any instructions concerning it. 

It is, then, merely as the Representative of French interests in Australia, that I have the honour to invite your attention to this matter, and am not now voicing the views of the French Government, – although I have reason to believe that they would not greatly differ from one another. 

I have the honour to be, 

Sir, 

Your obedient Servant, 

(Sgd. [Signed]) [Capitalised] GEORGES BIARD d’AUNET.