The San Francisco call., 1898-04-10
 : COMPLAIN OF
 MR. NORTH Their Minister Makes an Unfounded
 Charge. Alleges That His People Are Discriminated
 Against. Commissioner Roberts of Phila- delphia Sent Hither to
 Investigate.
CONTRACT LABOR AGENTS.
They Have Misrepresented Matters and Commissioner North Makes
 Vigorous Denial.

The Japanese Minister at Washington has made complaint to the Government against Immigration Commissioner North, accusing him of demanding a higher standard of qualification for Japanese attempting to land in this country than is prescribed for immigrants of other na tionalities
 These representauons were made to the Minister by certain Japanese contract labor agents in this city, one or two of whom have been mixed up in disreputable transactions connected with both sue cessful and frustrated attempts to land contract lahorers in droves They have represented that white immigrants are al- lowed to land upon their bare statements, while the Japanese are haled before the special board of inquiry and put through stringent process of cross-examination being treated like persons suspected of being criminals rather than industrious and honest citizens of a friendly nation.
 As result of the complaint of the Japanese Minister, the Secretary of the Treasury has dispatched to this city United States Immigration Commissioner Roberts of Philadelphia, and has request ed United States immigration CommiS- sioner Rice of Victoria, E. C., to co-op- crate with Commissioners Roberts and North in examining into and reporting upon the procedure followed by the 1m- migration Bureau in this city.
 It will be remembered that few weeks ago Comnu North examined a batch of Japanese laborers who had ar rived by way of Victoria. They were part of a gang of Japs to which MT. North had refused landing, the evidence being clear that they were contract la borers. The Victoria people had been permitted to land by MT. Rlce.
 This apparent laXity on the part of MT. Rice gave rise to murmuring among the owners of transportation lines operated between San Francisco and Japan. They said that if the door was to be thrown wide open at Victoria and double-locked at San Francisco there could be but one result, and that would be to turn the cur rent of Japanese travel to Victoria and to give San Francisco the go-by. MT. Rice was notified shortly afterward by the Secretary of the Treasury and the that he would afford pleasure to the ad- ministration and would put stop to the complaints if he would study the plan pursued by MT. North and if he and MT. form course in such matters.
 Commissioner North yesterday de- nounced as false the charge that he had applied one rule to Japanese and another rule to white immigrants. White immi- grants came hither with their families and told straight stories as to their in tention of making the United States their home. There was no evidence whatever that they were coming as contract la borers. On the other hand, MT. North had been obliged to refuse a landing to squads of Japanese, young men who ar- rived with 80 in their pockets and were dressed in the same lot of European clothing obtained from the same estab- lishment in Yokohama, and some of them being found with contract labor certi- ficates on their persons. They could not tell a straight story, but lied and con- tradicted themselves at every turn. For those reasons they had been denied a landing, and white persons under the same circumstances and telling the same improbable yarns would have been ex- cluded as well.