VANISHING CHINATOWN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 November 1928, Page 7

VANISHING CHINATOWN.

ORIENTALS IN LONDON. MANY MIXED MARRIAGES. Why do white women marry Chinese? This watsi the question to which a London journalist sought an answer in London’s Chinatown in Limehonse recentV. ‘ Miss Dolores del Rio, the film star, who has just visited th» quarter, was horrified to sea the open association of English] girts with Chinese. Those with experience of the evils of mixed marriages in Limehonse put their honor >f tlimn in strong terms, but- all agree about one thing—-the number of white women associating with Chinese is rapidly decreasang.lndeed, Chinatown itself in London is said to be fast dis- , pearing. Licensed Chinese lodging houses still os tie Chinese restaurants in Pennyae’.ris ; cards for pnk-a-pu, the Chinese .--tty game, can still be. bought at many a newsagent’s shop; but penury and deportation orders have almost denuded. Limehbuse. of Chinese. Those who remain are mostly established citizens with, businesses. • The average number.o-f marriages between Chinese and white women ha© fallen to six a year. Such marriages can only take place in a. registry office. A GIRL’S POINT OF VIEW. White oirls who apply for licenses to marry Chinese are always warned’ of the con sequencos. and it was from one of these who had just given notice of her intended marriage that I got peirlaps. the most convincing answer to ivy question. i ■ “In a Chinese home,” she said, “the rife, is the ‘boss.’ The ‘Chink’ treats ■ou wei'ii. and if I want to put my hands n the till them is nothing said. Why marry a dock 'labourer who grudges .•ou money for his food and bardies you when he comes home drunk?” From Mrs Lury the wife of the vicar of St. Peter’s, Limehou.se, _ the writer heard many interesting views. All Chinatown lies in her vusound s .parish, '•bo agreed that far fewer white women .consort with Chinese than in years gone but the one great problem remain© —the eh'i’d'imi of the mixed marriages. Vlmt to do with them no one knows, he Port of London Authority will not employ the boys at the docksand vhi id the girls are almost always' clever vith a needle, most of. them drift about tte® ©treat?! worklews. ostracised by all but theif fellow half-castes. “GOOD TO THEIR WIVES,”

“The Chinese,” said Mr Lury. “are ;ertainlv good to. their wives. They Tnerallv insist on their children being baptised in the Christian faith. Many 1, time Chinese have come to the vica> - ■vge in the midde of the night to .ask my husband to oive Christian comfort at the bedside of a dying white wife. These white women —and this is perhaps the most curious thing of all that was learned in Liniehouse—were mostly once well-educated, refined women. It is not the daughters cf the poor who end fchoir days in Chinatown, but tteoiso who 01100 had comfortable -homes, who ooii'l'd- not or would not work, who thought there was a strange fascination hi tlic Oriental.