Certificate Exempting the Dictation Test (CEDT)

Certificate Exempting Dictation Test - CEDT
CEDT's were issued to allow some to re-enter Australia who might otherwise be declared a prohibited immigrant on the basis of their race.

The new Commonwelath of Australia felt it neeeded to be 'white', a concensus generally labeled the 'White Australia policy. Consequently it early established a fake Dictation Test so it could keep out non-white people without actually naming names. The Labor Party had wanted to do this by naming “aboriginal natives of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands” as those to be excluded by law, but the Colonial Office in London was afraid of the offense this would cause its many Indian subjects as well as the Japanese and nearly everyone else.

Every law, however, has its exemptions and in the case of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 the exemptions were the many thousands of people, mainly Chinese, who while not ‘white’ were already living in Australia. Thus at the same time the Education (later Dictation) Test was born, so too was born the exemption to this test. In practice, these CEDT’s were a species of re-entry visa for people who were residents of Australia but denied citizenship. Application was made whenever a person wished to leave Australia and travel, usually to a village located in or around the Pearl River Delta, not too far from Hong Kong. Though people from many other ‘non-white’ places such as India or ‘Assyria’ were also issued them.

After filling in a form and supplying photos, the applicant paid £1 and two CEDT’s were made up. One was handed to the applicant or very often an agent acting on his behalf (nearly always a him), while the Collector of Customs in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, or wherever the ship was to be boarded kept the other. On return to an Australian port, customs officers boarded the ship and the passengers and crew were inspected. Any Chinese or ‘non-white’ person needed to produce proof they had the right to land and if this was a CEDT then their copy could be compared to the one kept on file. Failure to have a CEDT could mean being given the Dictation Test and sent back on the next available ship.

CEDT’s were issued from 1901 until 1958 when the Dictation Test was finally eliminated from the statue books, leaving behind thousands of duplicate copies, each with its photographic image and very often a hand or at least thumb print of an individual denied Australian citizenship but granted residence for life if they so wished.