AMERICA AND JAPAN.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13728, 18 August 1908, Page 3

AMERICA AND JAPAN.

THE RACIAL FEELING. FLEET'S MISSION IN THE PACIFIC. A JOURNALIST'S STORY. Mr Lee Clotworthy," the distinguished journalist, who is travelling with ' the American fleet, and representing the United Press Associations of America, gave a representative of the Auckland Herald some interesting details concerning the political side of the cruise of America's Armada. "Americans throughout the length and breadtTi of the Union," he said, "have been looking forward with tinkeenest possible interest to the visit of the fleet to New Zealand,) and they will, I know, be gratified at the truly magnificent reception it has receive- 1 in Auckland. We feel that Australia and New Zealand are in a very similar position to ourselves with regard to the Asiatic immigration question, while their isolated position resembles very much that of our insular possessions, Hawaii and the Philippines. To under- 1 stand the motives which underlie the present cruise, it is necessary to call tos.mind the various aspects of the yellow peril problem as it exists in Aim - j rica. I "Y r ellow. labour, in the form of Chi- j nese coolies, was first introduced into J America to help in the building of tlio ! I railroads. After this work was com- 1 ipleted the Chinamen were left on the labour market, and came in competition with our own white labour, ami j with their ever-increasing numbers be- J icame so great a menace that CongrosJ ! passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, | which shuts out Chinamen from Ame- 1 rica. Unfortunately, when dealing , with the Asiatic question Congress left , an open door for the admission of Japanese. There was no great influx oi Japanese, however, until after the jolose of the Russo-Japanese war. They ; (began by flooding our Hawaiian pos- 1 j sessions, and in Hawaii to-day there , are 74.000 Japanese out of a totsi' j population of 145.000, the balance of I population outside Japanese being composed of Chinese, natives, Portur < ■ giiese, mixed Asiatics, and 4000 Eng-jliih-speaking people. "The problem did not become acute j however, until the Japanese horde reached the Pacific Slope. They cairn* , -in thousands, and actually began,' broad as the statement may seem, to colonise the Western States. It was :i case of the exploiter being exploited, i i America commercially discovered Ja- ■ ipan, opening up her markets and gen- ! JoralJy introducing her to Western >civi- , • lisation; now. fifty year's later, Japan j ,has con) merei ally discovered America.; •and to-day she absolutely controls the 1 J ocean-carrying trade between America land tho East. Last year Japan of-, jfered to buy every American steamor > engaged in the Trans-Pacific trade, i and unless the United States Government awakens to the necessity of sub- j sidising our steamers on that route. ', 'Japan will control every one of them , vvithin the next twelvo months. j "The Japanese, as I have said, actually began to colonise America. First j they s^nt their labourers, then came jiiiejrX merchants, their tradesmen, their bankers, and their storekeeper*. ' Japanese settlements sprang up in all i our coast towns — 'Little Tokios* we ! call them. Under the direction of men | in the cities, Japanese were put to work on the land. They succeeded in oven driving the few remaining Chinamen out of the- orchards, and in Sou- ■ them California and in large farming :ireas throughout the Pacific Coast they now control the labour situation. , They did not take lone to prove that j jtbev were a people without integrity, jand Americans discovered that they bad to deal with the most undesirable ; foreign element that ever invaded .' their shores. As soon os they got con- i *rol in the labour market they became! quite intolerable in their demands ' and many of the smaller farmers ?>u<l fruitgrowers were actually compelled to sell their land to them. The money ■ was always forthcoming : they can Id silways go to their banks and «r p t tlm ' money to buy America's soil with. In some of the fruit-raising districts they became the owners of most of the acre- *!<«», and formed selling associations, through which to market their pro- , ducts. Working -on their power in the labour field, they threatened and coerced the white fruitgrowers. into marIreting their produce through these Asiatic associations. ! "You can imagine how all this ap- '' pealed to the white men. It was bill natural that an.- intense raoial hatred should immediately follow. This racial feeliiur found itp culmination in the , San Francisco school troubles. Those riots did one good th^ng — they awak- ! ened the whole of the country to the extreme danger of the situation. Tbe Japanese wanted to enter our public i schools — the nupils whom they sent along not being children but adults, whose only object was to learn tb" ' English language, so that it would | help them commercially. The San j Francisco schools refused to allow these adult Japanese to sit side by side- with their girl pupils in the mixed ' schools. The city had provided an i lOrit-ntal school, but the Japanese insisted on obtaining the same privilege which was extended to the, peonies of all other civilised Powers in the up" of the schools, although they conveniently forgot that no adult pupils of any kind are allowed in 'the schools. "Japan pushed her case over the school question in such an ugly way that tho whole of America was stirred to its depths and brought to a realisation of the actual sentiment of Japan towards the United States. America felt the situation the more keenly in view of the fact that she was practically powerless to rppel attack from an Asiatic source on the Pacific Coast at that time, for the fleet which shn had was concentrated, as it had always been, in the Atlantic. America awakened to tho fact that tho Philippines were absolutely defenceless, while Hawaii was in an exactly similar position. In case of a clash with an Asiatic Power, the Philippines and Hawaii would immediately fall, provided there was no fleet to defend tnem. In the event of war with/Japan, Maniln, it was seen, would fall into the hands of the enemy, and, strongly fortified, would make an ideal naval base. The American fleet would then have to operate 8000 miles from headquarters in order to attempt re-capture. In the case of Hawaii, Japan had an army waiting ready for her use on that territory, most of them being men who have been in the army, and only requiring arms. Against Hawaii once captured we would have to operate 1500 miles from our base. "While we, are not looking for trouble with Japan, we realise that preparations for defence are necessary Weakness begots fear, and fear leads to hatred. Witlr a fleet off our Pacific Coast the questions that are now troubling us would be more likely to find a natural* solution, and there would be fower diplomatic crises and war clouds. Tho cruise of tho preiwni fleef has iirouNed wuch wondorful in-

terest in the strong navy idea in the United States that if it served no other purpose it would not be be in vain. The ambition of naval men is to see a strong fleet in the Pacific, and another in the Atlantic, and the connecting link, the Panama Canal, completed. The Japanese question will come up for consideration .again in Congress in December next, and I may MB tHftt ft \ great, many people, and those good judges, believe that the white fleet will never return through the Suez Canal to the Atlantic, but will remain in the Pacific waters."