ANTI-FILIPINO RIOTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20519, 21 March 1930, Page 11

ANTI-FILIPINO RIOTS.

PACIFIC COAST PROBLEM.

POSSIBILITY OF REPRISALS,

[from our own correspondent.] SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 5. The recent growth of the Filipino population in the Pacific Coast states to 65,000, with an annual increase of 12,000, has led to a somewhat serious -situation, arising out of riots in Washington and California, and culminating in .Watsonville, in the latter State, in the death of a Filipino, the stabbing of a white man and injuries on both sides in a general melee at a cabaret in which white girls are employed as dance partners at P> Filipino-conducted cabaret. Filipinos, who join the American Navy for exU \rience in foreign ports, generally take tii;ir discharge in California, where tho' Pacific Fleet is based, after they have served two years for which naval ratings generally sign_ on. The newcomers, who are American subjects, find two avenues of employment—-domestic service and farm work. After working in the orchards on tho Pacific Coast many of them easily obtain city jobs at lower than the standard wage. ihey. do two jobs for the wages of one, work as tray carriers in restaurants, run elevators, act as janitors, and work as bus boys in hospitals. In tho fields the Filipinos work for a lower wage than the white men _ accept, and reproduce the economic situation established by the Oriental before the exclusion law in 1924. In fruit and fash canneries they do rouseabout jobs. _ A thrifty race, tliev seek the companionship of white girls and lavish gifts on them. It is here they coine in conflict with the Americans, who will not tolerate coloured ' men associating with tlieir womankind. In the winter exodus to the big cities tho problem becomes more The Filipinos occupy a peculiar position in the eves of the Federal Government. In 1924. when the exclusion law was passed, it was felt that they would como under it, like the Japanese and the Chinese, but the courts held otherwise, richtlv adjudicating them to bo citizens of a subject city, and therefore entitled to unrestricted entry into tho united States. , The' recent outbreak will have a reaction in tho Philippines in enhancing the propaganda for autonomous government. Already there is some slight indication that reprisals may be taken, especially against Americans in Manila, if Filipino nationals are interfered with in the United States.