"NO SAVEE."

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 8, 11 January 1927, Page 8

"NO SAVEE."

LISTING THE CHINESE. IN THE EVENT OF WAR. NO EASY TASK. At a rough estimate, there are in New Zealand to-day somewhere about 3300 Chinamen. Some possibly come within "retired gentlemen," but the great majority would be tagged as market gardeners, laundrymen, or greengrocers and fruiterers. A few years ago, in the days when vaudeville in Auckland was established in the old City Hall (now City Chambers), at the corner of Queen and Victoria Streets, one of the popular songs was "All Coons Look Alike To Me," but though the composer built his verses around the American negro, he might <|uite easily have applied them to Chinamen. At the moment, I'ngTand and China are in serious dispute, which possibly may end in a declaration of war. Should this happen, the defence authorities in and other countries will have to consider their Chinese population. In 1914, when war was declared between England and Germany, the police of New Zealand very quickly got to work and listed all enemy aliens. Some were men of high standing and holding big business interests, but the work of the police was thorough, and everything it .was thought necessary to know about them was available. Some were interned on Motuihi Island, and a few, headed by Yon Luckner, effected a rather sensational escape, only to be recaptured later. To "list" the Geromans at that time .was not a very difficult matter, but if war should break out with China, and it be found necessary to take similar steps with the Chinese in the Dominion, the problem may present many difficulties. Although "John" may have been with us for years, there is so much of a muchness about him and his countrymen that the European never really gets beyond a nodding acquaintance with him. Again John Chinaman is not a born raconteur, the sort of chap you invite to your home to entertain friends with the latest stories either from the "front" or the Commercial Travellers' Club. To us the ability to state the price of vegetables, fruit, or ironed collars and shirts, with a "No Savee"—the latter is used as a conversational wedge to block all further discourse—seems to be the limit to the speech of most Chinamen, despite the fact that the Customs officers put the little men from Canton. Kowloon, or whatever place it is they hail from, through a test. The Chinese who come to New Zealand i to settle are so reserved and keep to themselves so much that, beyond seeing them and dealing with them, we know

little or nothing of them, and they are as peas ill a pod—all alike. This does not include the more businesslike Chinese merchants. When an inquiry was made at the Defence Office as to whether any action would be taken regarding the local Chinese if war should be declared, the reply was that the matter had not been considered, but if it were necessary to compile a "Who's Who" of the Chinese in the Dominion the job would be no easy one.