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fact that they didn't have a legal passport and hadn't made a leg legal entrance, they were then permitted to go to Canada at their own expense, with the information given to the Canadian authorities of their intention to return, and the information given to the American consular office that So-and-So would present himself at the consular office within a certain number of days. We sent up pre-examination papers. We stationed an immigration officer at all those border crossing poibts in the nearest cities. The refugees went through the ropes and signed the necessary documents in Canada and then were admitted legally over the Canadian border. They were persons entering from Canada, just as if they had gotten off the ship at Halifax or Quebec. There was no disguise about it. These were pre-examination people. There was no attempt to fool ourselves or anybody else. Their papers showed they had been in the United States for some time and they had now gone to Canada. They came in over the border legally and were now legally enetered.
Of course, people often said, “Why go through all this rigmarole? It's like play acting. Why go to Canada and then turn around and come back? Why not fix the papers up now?”
While I often proposed that, there was something that stuck in the legal crotch of our advisers in the Immigration Service, and all the consular officers, and the State Department. It just couldn't be done. There was something about going to Canada that fixed it up.
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