JAPANESE IN CANADA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13997, 2 September 1907, Page 5

JAPANESE IN CANADA.

FEAR. IN BRITISH COLUMBIA,

SUPPOSED .MENACE.

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright,

LONDON, August 30. The Tirrtes' New York corespondent says that it is asserted that there are 8000 Japanese in British Columbia, and that 2500 more are expected. ' The people, ho adds, are almost panic-stricken in the presence of what is believed to be some vague menace or organised - attempt to make the Pacific coast a, yellow country.

The various Oriental exclusion leagues in Canada, and the United States propose a conference on the question. Mr Nosse, the Japanese Consul at Ottawa, says that only 3334 Japanese have entered British Columbia, and that these are mostly mcrelianfs and students, who are proceeding to the Unietd State, tho net number of Japanese immigrants in Canada being 641.

It is the opinion of Mr C. H. Ribbons, Madame Albani's manager, now in Dunedin (who, as' an active journalist iir British Columbia until very recently, alii® president of the British Columbia Press Association, is closely in touch with the subject), that the seriousness of the situation has been considerably exaggerated by tho correspondent quoted, wtio probably is tho correspondent of tho Now Y&rk Times, not the New York correspondent of the London Times.

"Tho Japanese imigration question has been a very largo issue with British Columbians for 60111© years past," eaid Mr Gibbons to a Daily Times interviewer last evening, "but there were no circumstances present when. I left- home in March last to justify the belief .that so serious a situation as indicated in the cablegram could possibly develop within so short a time. Most probably the special correspondence cited is an example of tho work of tho travelling' American space writer, whoso habit it is to tour the country alert for every open question that will-afford a. spccious text upon which to hang a sensational and, therefore, saleable articlo. Of such correspondence tho week-end editions of many of the largor .American journals aro chiefly made up. "At tho close of last year there were, approximately, 5000 Japanese in British Columbia (which territorially is. about onetwelfth as large as all Australia), prinoipally engaged in the. salmon fisheries, timber camps, and similar ' industrial enterprises, inclusive of tho. coal mines. Tho influx had been abnormal immediately after tho war, but latterly had considerably fallen J off, tho Japanese Government being much averse to their people going to any country which does not welcome them. Insofar as British Columbia is conccl'nod, immigration statistics are apt to be misleading, as that province, being the. Dominion gateway, is perforce credited with the total of immigration receipts, although a large proportion of tho incomers pass through at once to the' more eastern provinces or adjacent American Slates. British Columbia's Labour bodies have nevertheless been active in efforts to restrict the admission of all Asiatic immigrants, and at their urging many bills have been offered and passed in the'provincial Legislature aimed at the little brown ally of the Mother Country. As a general thing our politicians of all parties have, ardently espoused' thoso measures to ,w.in the favour of the' Labour vote, with sure and certain hope that the Federal or Imperial vote would be exercised at tho proper moment to nullify the work of tho Provincial House. Indeed, although the Home Government had plainly stated that no such measures would he sanctioned as would ho natural causo of offence to tho Japanese people, the British Columbia pplicy lias been latterly to continue their passage through the Legislature simply- for local political effect. " Just at present the construction of two trans-continental railways which seek an outlet oil the Pacific seaboard—tho Grand Trunk Pacifio and the Canadian Northernhas greatly .stimulated the demand for labour, and although tho railway builders are debarred by the terms of their charters from using alien workers, their enterprises must further exhaust the available white labour supply, so that, the incentive to Japanese labour would bo greater at present than under normal conditions, and hence a stimulated influx of Japanese might be looked for. It is quite possible, too, that a considerable number of Japanese have recently come northward to BritishColumbia from California, in consequence of tho antipathy there towards their country and themselves. I cannot, however, conceive that the situation is so serious as represented in tho cable dcsaptch. Nor do I imagine it possible that Oriental exclusion leagues in Canada (which must be organisations of very recent birth) would bo so ..impolitic as to join in the hysterical crusade of such bodies in California and other Western States, which must be hold largely responsible' for the present strained relatione of the United States and Japan. "And as to those relations, let no one here imagine that there is or has been at any time prospect of war between tho United States and the new Asialic Power. Japan's grievance is in no sense an international one —it is with California (one might almost say the City of San Francisco) solely. Tho position of the State and city is not .endorsed at Washington, which would be primarily essential to give the quarrel an international complexion. Even supposing that the irresponsible jingoists of America and Japan should so swamp sound public opinion in these countries as to exhaust diplomacy, Japan could not make war on the United States for tho sufficient reason that she could not. finance so formidable an undertaking. Wars are costly. Japan is not rich. It will, indeed, be years before she recovers industrially and financially from the disturbance of her late triumnhal campaign. To make war with the United States would involve tho flotation of enormous loans, and her appeal would naturally lie to England. Does anyone suppose that British financiers would capitalise a Japanese war against the nation nearest akin and with which Britain has most in common cause commercially? Or would the British public submit to such suicidal policy as would be evidenced in fostering upon' insufficient cause the looming menace of an Asiatic domination? The sensational press of the United States may be stylod the heart, of the JapaneseAmerican war scare. Quite possibly it also is solely vosoousible foi' the alleged acuteness developed in the British Columbia Japanese immigration question."