The N. Z. Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1806. THE ANTI-ASIATIC SPIRIT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 6052, 9 November 1906, Page 6

The N. Z. Times

(PUBLISHED DAILY). FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1806. THE ANTI-ASIATIC SPIRIT.

WITH WHICH IB ZNCOJLPOBA7BO THE “ WB&EUUOT'X&I »S>B?*»D2NT.” BBTA&Z.IBZRID IMS*

In spite of the subsidence of the storyi which appeared to be brewing between America and Japan as the result of flic exclusion of Japanese children from the whit© schools of San Francisco, there has been a recrudescence of the anti-Asiatic feeling of California in a now shape. It was reported yesterday that Japanese restaurant-keepers in San Francisco had complained to the United States Minister of Commerce that they were being boycotted.. At the bottom of both incidents is, of course, the revulsion of . California against any encouragement of a Japanese influx—-the feeling, indeed, which inspires both the White Australia movement and the incroaGing anxiety in New Zealand to preserve our racial purity intact. Last week’s disturbance was quelled, after the .portents had pointed to the imminence of an actual rupture between Japan and America, by President Roosevelt’s undertaking to invoke the United States constitution and compel California to observe Federal treaties in its State administration. Article 6of the constitution binds tlie States to the laws of the Federation, and thus provide© that where a State’s laws infringe a treaty obligation, the Federal Government may supersede and void those laws. The door by which Japan made its entry of protest is a treaty which is read to provide for reciprocally equal treatment of people of the two' nationaltics in tho two countries, but the boycotting of the restaurant-keepers can hardly com® within the cognisance of any such treaty. Tho treaty can perhaps compel tho granting of equal trading facilities to Japanese domiciled in California, hut it can hardly enforce upon San Francisco an equal patronage of thealien and American traders.

Tliere appears, therefore, to ho nothing for Japan to do but nurse a bitterness of heart, and if the anti-Japanese feeling of San Francisco does not go beyond a peaceful boycotting, there can bo no such serious crisis as that which arose last week. The two incidents hare a closer concern for Australasia than that attaching to an interesting coivlict between two far away nations. So grave had the anti-Ameri-can irritation become in Japan, before the President quelled the rising tempest, that tho question was asked in the House of Commons whether the Anglo-Japanese treaty safeguarded Great Britain against war with the United States on behalf of Japan. The Minister for Foreign Affairs is reported to have’ replied that the agreement is of a general defensive character, and that there was no indication that it was likely to lead to war with any Power. Thie explanation, which will be welcomed in America as a reassurance of very -widespread misgivings, is the natural interpretation of those clauses of tho agreement which permit England to remain neutral should Japan engage in war with ono Power, but which provide that in the event of a coalition of Powers assaulting one of the contracting parties the other must involve itself in the defence of its ally. Nine months ago, when China was vigorously boycotting American goods, Great Britain was surprised, and not entirely gratified, to learn that a Japanese politician had asked the Japanese War Minister whether Great Britain was taking steps to increase tho efficiency of her army. Taking the incident as tho text of some observations upon the Anglo-Japanese agreement, the San Francisco “Argonaut” predicted that before very long the agreement would become irksome to Great Britain. ‘'Suppose the Oriental smoulder flares into .war,” it suggested. “What will be the attitude of Japan to this country? Will tho United States bo allowed to follow •*' her course in China independent. of Japanese intrigue or opposition ? Should there oorao a clasli between the dominant power of tho American continent and the new Oriental conqueror, what will the ally of Japan do? Would the British people allow their power, diplo l matio or material, to bo ranged on behalf of tho brown race against the white? These are some of tho questions to which answers may hot mooncel vabty.be demanded in .the near future,” In New Zealand wo have had our own troubles in attempting to declare ourselves opposed to Asiatic immigration, and wo cannot think that public feeling hero lias quite recovered from tho shock with which it learnt some months ago that tho Balfour Government had made a surreptitious attempt to rob this country of any voice in the direction of ono of the most important of its national concerns. Japanese visitors to New Zealand are constantly letting us understand that our immigration restriction policy is sharply resented in Japan, and we shall be wise never'to forget it. For this reason it becomes necessary closely to observe the development of the anti-Japauc-c movement in the Ilestorn States of America. In the meantime- it is as difficult to find excuses for the attempted restriction of the rights of

Japanese children already in San Francisco as it is easy to commend the boycotting policy where it confines itself to passive aloofness. There would he no sympathy fur any attempt to hairss and oppress tho Chinese whom we have admitted within our gates, and who conform to our laws, but there is much to be said in favour of such a legitimate discouragement of Chinese trading as will make New Zealand an unprofitable field for Asiatic immigration.