JAPANESE INFLUX INTO CANADA

Southland Times, Issue 23675, 25 November 1938, Page 8

JAPANESE INFLUX INTO CANADA

Espionage Suspected BIG PROBLEM FOR GOVERNMENT VANCOUVER, October 12. In the Chinese colony in Vancouver the story is told that one of the Chinese delegates to the Coronation, Mr Chin, returned by way of Canada. He travelled incognito, and, while waiting at a leading hotel in Vancouver for the trans-Pacific liner, refused to meet ranking members ofthe Chinese community. . Mr Chin had had long conversations with British Treasury officials, and his despatch contained data relating to a possible loan to the Chinese Government. When Mr Chin’s ship called at Yokohama, Japanese police boarded it, entered his cabin, and searched through his papers. The result was that Japanese servants employed at the Vancouver hotel, were discharged, suspected of espionage. This is an example of countless similar tales of subversive Japanese activity related along the Pacific Coast, from San Diego to Nome. When, however, it was learned that a considerable number of Japanese young men, Canadian citizens, go back to Japan to serve a term in the army, it was felt that the time had arrived for a complete overhaul of the “gentlemen’s agreement” that replaced the Anglo-Japanese entente, which was abrogated at the instance of Canada. The Prime Minister, Mr W. L. Mackenzie King bowed to an increasing popular demand, and set up a commission of inquiry, but loath to offend Japan, ordered that its sessions be private. The commission has practically confined its investigation to individual cases of Japanese entering Canada illegally. More than 1200 Japanese fishing boats ply their trade in every bay and inlet on the British Columbia Coast. They are the subject of another disquieting story—that the majority of them are equipped with compressed air tanks, and, in an emergency, could be converted into torpedo boats. The number of Japanese business licences issued in Vancouver has increased by 74 per cent, in the last decade. The Vancouver City Council is pressing to have Oriental trade licences issued on a quota basis. The provincial government is in accord with this and many other proposals to restrict Oriental progress, which in certain retail trades is, relatively, far in excess of that of the white population.