The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-10-15
A Chinese
IN JEOPARDY
is ONE OF SEVERAL DUBIOUS
CASES OF REGISTRATION OF
HAWAIIAN BIRTH.

In the granting of Chinese birth GER
tifcates Secretary Mott-Smith is find
ing some trouble. He has refused to
take up any new cases for the past
week, but few of the old matters are
still bothering him. Several of these
are at present still under investigation
and one in particular may possibly
result in charges of perjury. for the
law provides for the punishment or
any one who swears to a false state
ment in giving evidence in regard to
the birth Of the applicant for a certI-
ficate.
The case mentioned is one of Chit
nese who claims to have been born in
this city and who lives here now. The
first suspicious circumstance comes
from the fact that he does not have a
certificate showing that he was regis
tered as a resident of the Territory at
the time of annexation. In giving his
testimony before the Secretary he said
that he had at one time gone to China
on a trip and had later returned to
this city. The records of the local
immigration Office fail to show that he
ever left this city to go to China which
puts him in a bad position.
In several other matters during his
examination the applicant for a certi-
ficate of Hawaiian birth, which en-
titles him to a vote in elections as
prima facie evidence, contradicted
himself. The result is that he has
not been given a certificate and that
his case is being looked into with the
utmost care. II is also possible, as
stated above, that he may find himself
indicted on charge of perjury.
When asked about this matter to-
day Secretary Mott-Smith stated that
he had a number of other cases in re-
gard to which there was some doubt
and which were being held up. Sew
en- or eight of these he is now work.
ing on, and four or five more are also
awaiting investigation and are regard
ed as being so important that the pa
pers in the case are not kept in the
general files, but are locked in safe.
The forging of Chinese birth certi-
ficates and also of certificates which
show that Chinese have right to re-
main in this country, is nothing new
on the mainland though there has
been very little of it here. In Seattle
and in San Francisco firms have been
unearthed which made a regular bust
ness of forging the certificates which
are given out by the Federal Govern
ment These rings, however, have been
pretty we'll broken up in the last few
years, chiefly through the work of the
immigration office, which found that
some of its most trusted men had been
implicated in the frauds.
In this line there was considerable
trouble in San Diego only two weeks
ago, when three of the head men in
the immigration Service were dismiss
ed for "incompetency" Since all the
men discharged had been In the de.
| partment for a long time, and were
thoroughly acquainted with their
work, calling them incompetent seems
very strange.
Inspector Farmer who was in this
city for many years I'm the Customs
| Service, left here some months ago to
join the immigration Service at San
Diego. He has not been mixed up at
all in the scandals which have been
charged in the Coast papers, which
go so far as to accuse the officials in
Washington with discharging the San
Diego men, on account of the fact that