ANTI-CHINESE RIOT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 199, 16 May 1908, Page 5

ANTI-CHINESE RIOT.

VIOLENCE AT HOME. A YELLOW MERCANTILE MARINE. QUESTION IN THE COMMONS. dX TELEGRAPH —PHEES ASSOCIATION— COPYRIGHT London, May 14. Great violence is being displayed by British sailors towards Chinese at Poplar, to prevont their taking employment in British ships. . . - The men allege that the Chinese are unable to pass the language test. Chinese are boirig hunted iii many'of the East End streets. In reply to a question in the Houso of Commons by Sir. Haveloek Wilson, Labour, member for Middlesbrough (who represented the seamen at the Navigation Conference), Mr. Churchill, President of the Board of Trade, said that the recent unusual increase in the number of Chinese seamen shipped in the United Kingdom ports was a matter of serious concern, and was receiving the Board of Trade's prompt and searching attention.

CHEAP CHINESE LABOUR. The Merchant Shipping Act, 190G, enacts 'that no foreign seaman shall bo engaged unless ho knows sufficient. English to understand the words of command. Steps are also taken, under ,tlie Act, to securo good food for SBciniGii, by introducing a minimum scale, and-enforcing inspection of provisions. But it would poem that "Lascars" are exempt; and that shipowners are contending that Chineso are "Lascars." If this contention were correct, Chinese labour would, obviously, be profitable in this and many other ways! The increase of Chineso in Liverpool during the last twenty-five years led the Liverpool City Council to appoint last year a commission of inquiry. Tho commission found that for the most part it is probable that tho Chinamen in Liverpool "are, or have been, members of ship's crews. They chiefly find employment in boarding-houses or in laimUp to the . present the Chinese have restricted themselves chiefly, to tho keeping of laundries and a few shops, but there is nothing to prevent them invading other occupations as Well, in the same way as they havo done iu other parts of the world."

According to a Home paper, when H.M.S. Shearwater was at Sail Diego, South America, last year, a tioKen men deserted, including ten stokers. Placed as lie was, the Commander engaged ten Chineso stokers, whose onlistment lie notified to the Admiralty. ".The Admiralty," it is added, "has giveni instructions that Chinamen may, in future, be employed as'stokers."