JAPS AID CALIFORNIA

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160692, 3 July 1920, Page 5

JAPS AID CALIFORNIA

JAPANESE FEARS. By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. TOKIO, July 1. Recrudescence of the anti-Japanese agitation in California is attracting widespread attention in Japan. ’The National Convention of the Chamber of Commerce adopted a resolution declaring that the agitation was assuming grave proportions, and expressing fear that if it was not checked the interests of the Japanese in California, which are the result of years of toil, will be doomed, and requesting the appointment of a committee to discuss defensive ways and means.

“JAP MENACE.” ALARM IN CALIFORNIA, A recent cable message from Sacramento stated that Mr William D. Stephens, Governor of California, in a letter to the Secretary of State (Mr Brainbridge Colby), says that the influx into California of Japanese has created such alarming conditions that it has become necessary to protect the sovereignty of the State against the growing menace through displomatio negotiations or by a strict exclusion Act. He says that the spectacle is presented of a few white children acquiring education in class-rooms crowd’ ed with Japanese. A message from Washington states that Japan has lodged with the State Department an informal protest against the proposed legislation in California providing for the absolute prohibition of Japanese ownership, or the lease of land in that State. WILL EXHAUST EVERY POWER. It is learned that the Governor (Mr Stephens) of California, in his letter to the Secretary of State, said; “California is determined to repress the developing Japanese community in our midst, and will exhaust every power to maintain this State for our own people. California wants peace, but is determined that the mistakes cf Hawaii , shall not be repeated here.” Mr Stephens asserts that the socalled “gentlemen’s agreement” relative to Japanese immigration is wholly ineffective, and demands the exclusion of Japanese in the same way as Chinese are excluded.