Summary

Letter and one exact copy written by Agapito Castillo to the Australian Consulate General in New York City, undated but circa 1950 which was the time his wife Aileen was writing to the Australian Immigration Department about the same issue. It is not known if the letter was ever sent. The letter was written from the ship SS Stanvac Hong Kong c/o the Standard Vacuum Oil Company New York for who Agapito worked. Agapito is following up a request for a visa renewal to land in Australia to visit his wife and children in Melbourne.

Philippines-born Agapito Castillo had married Aileen McColl in Melbourne while he was working for the British Phosphate Company and was detained there during World War II.

This item is part of a collection of material relating to the migration and settlement experiences of seamen from the Philippines during the post World War II era in Australia; and the experiences of the local Anglo-Australian women they married.

Physical Description

Document with black printed ink on cream paper.

Significance

This collection and story represents an important narrative in Australia's migration history, regarding the challenges faced by seamen from the Philippines caught in Melbourne during the outbreak of World War II and unable to return home, trying to settle in Melbourne and marry locally-born women of Anglo-Australian background. It also shows the prejudice these women themselves faced. The collection reveals a community of these men and women and their families, connected through family relationships; and it demonstrates the vagaries of bureaucracy, and the influence of the White Australia policy, still officially in force at that time.

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