The New York herald., 1921-12-20
ELLIS ISLAND FILLED
With ALIENS FACING
PULSORY RETURN
GlOOmiest Christmas Ever
Known for Those Who
Sought Refuge Here.
SHIPS ALSO PACKED
Despairing Immigrants Are
Mostly From Famine
Stricken Lands.
THOUSANDS MUST GO
Quotas of Many Countries Ex-
cceded, but Still They
Pour In.
THOUSANDS MUST GO

This will be the saddest Christmas
Ellis Island has ever seen.
In previous years the immigrants
condemned by the vicissitudes of for
tune and the sea to spend the holiday
on that dreary island in the bay were
buoyed up by the thoughts and
dreams of the new land into which
they were to enter within a day or
so and of relatives they were to see
for the first time in years.
But this Christmas hundreds of the
immigrants on the island, and an even
greater number in the cheeress steer
ages of half dozen ships. have moth
ing to think Of but deportation. And
some of those now on the crowded
island will spend their Christmas on
vessels carrying them through winter
seas back to the homes they dsman-
tied.
The situation, as reported to w. w.
Husband. Commissioner-Genera of I'm
migration. at Washington. is that 1125
immigrants are now detained on Ellis
Island because the quota of their coun-
tries has been exceeded
Ships Hold Hundreds More.
Several hundred more automatically
to pe deported are on ships In the har-
Dor. Between 1900 and 1900 have been
admitted temporarily on bond. as a mat
Ter of humanity. About 1900 have al
ready been sent home The sad plight
of the immigrants was revealed by the
| investigation by Secretary of Labor
Davis in Washington
Robert e. Tod. Commissioner OF I'm
migration, said yesterday that 1t would
be an impossible task to estimate just
how many hundreds OF immigrants
would spend Christmas Day on the ISL
and waiting for the time to come when
they would be sent home, or living In the
slender hope that an appeal to Wash
ington would open the doors OF the new
land.
Il know this" Mr.. Tod said. THE
island will be filled beyond capacity.
and there will be thousand or two
thousand immigrants on ships in the
harbor awaiting "a chance to get to the
Island. We can accommodate 1900
normally on the island, but I am afraid
this number will be greatly exceeded.
There will be no Christmas holiday for
the immigration men. but or sunday
afternoon we hope to have a little cele-
bration to brighten things up IL we can
Tor those who are to be turned back"
Mr. Tod made PLAIN that ali the i'm
migrants held for deportation or for the
outcome of their appeal to Washington
are slowing UP the work Of passing those
immigrants entitled to entrance.
Every immigrant awaiting deporta-
ton on the island keeps another i'm
migrant waiting in the steerase of a
ship" he said.
From Famine Stricken Lands.
The immigrants who are to be sent
home are, for the most part, from lands
where the war. and the famine and dis
ease that followed, bore down the hard
est. Families who sold their little cot
tages or novels and spent practically all
their money in getting to seaports and
paying steamship fares on their arrival
here had the prospect OF more pros
perious existence in America changed to
vision of n return in winter time to
their own impoverished countries with
out even the homes they sold and the
work they had to enable them to exist.
Most of them knew nothing of the
Dillingham; law restricting immigration
to a proportion of the previous immi-
grants from their native lands.
While the situation Is serious now.
It will probably be worse by Christmas.
Yesterday FIVE ships. the Cedric and
Scythia from England the Hansa from
Germany, the Regina d'Italia from Italy
and the Savoie from France, arrived,
bringing 1904 immigrants.
To-day the Stavangerfjord and the
iceland arrive. and later in the week
come the Manchura. Ryndam, America,
Frederik VIII, Adriatic. Celtic. Car
mania and Providence. most OF which
will add to the number Of deportees. BY
January quotas for all the countries
sending large numbers of immigrants
Will have been exhausted.