JAPANESE PROBLEM AGAIN

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160739, 27 August 1920, Page 10

JAPANESE PROBLEM AGAIN

ALARM IN THE STATES. CALIFORNIANS SEE PERIL. (Auckland Stir Correspondent.) SAN FR VNCISCO, July 10. Once more the Oriental peril, whereby the Pacific Coast may become dominated by Japanese and Chinese, is showing signs of causing a heated controversy, judging by certain official action wlich had its Tic option in the Legislature of California. WarnTng thar California Japanese are obtaining “an intimate knowledge of coastline, harbours, and defences, which would be extremely dangerous and serviceable to an enemy during a period of war,” the State Board of Control of the Golden West State, in the latter portion of its report to Governor Stephens, calls attention to the fact that such information is now available to the Nipponese because they have been allowed to secure- a monopioly of the fishing industry on the Pacific Coast. Commenting on the hold which the Japanese Lave secured on the fishing industry, and its importance in the event of war between the United States and Japan, the repxirt states: “The experience of the British Government, in particular, during the world war demonstrated the value of the services of the fishing fleet for patrol duty along the coastline during the war. The fishing fleet, with its small beats scattered along the entire coast, proved "exceedingly valuable in reporting the approach of enemy boats and submarines “In the case of California, with a fishing fleet manned by aliens, especially if circumstances made them enemy aliens, we would not only lose the I valuable services of these boats for | patrol duty during a time of war, but this same fishing fleet might become a powerful aid to the enemy. The Orientals, particularly the Japanese, have recognised the importance of this_ industry, and have entered the fishing business in ever-increasing numbers, un-

til to-day ijhiere are metre Japanese fishermen operating on the coasts of California than any other nationality. Tn the 1915-16 license year there were 491 Japanese fishermen out of a total of 3758, or approximately 13 per cent. The year 1919-20 shows 1316 Japanese out of a total of 4671, or 28 per cent, of the total.” It is noted in the report that the Japanese fishermen have increased until they now outnumber any other nationality, having increased about 168 per cent. Of the total number of fishermen’s boats operated from the coast of California, 355 of them are manned by Japanese, and 790 are operated by all other nationalities combined, the total value of the Japanese boats being 1,397,000 dollars, and the value of all the other boats being 2,055,000 dollars. Referring again to the possibility of war between the two nations, the Board of Control advises that Japanese, though, born in America and holding all the rights of American citizens, owe first obligation of allegiance and military service to Japan under the dual citizenship custom. TO BAN ORIENTALS. Governor Stephens, of California, has called upon the United States Federal Government to take immediate steps to check Japanese colonisation in California. In his letter Governor Stephens said; “lire people of California are determined to repress a developing Japanese community within our midst. They are determined to exhaust every power in their keeping to maintain the State of California for its own people. This' determination is based fundamentally' upon the ethnological impossibility of assimilating tho Japanese people, and the consequential alternative of increasing a population whoso very race isolation must be fraught with tho gravest consequences. California wants peace. But California wants to retain this commonwealth for her own people, where they may grow up and develop their own ideals. Wo are confronted at this time by the problems that have arisen in the Hawaiian Islands, where the Japanese have now developed to such an extent which gives them a preponderance, I am informed, in the affairs of that territory. That mistake of Hawaii must not, and California is determined, sh;u,' : u>t he repeated here.” The influx of Japanese'irSo California,, has brought about “alarming” conditions, and it has become necessary to protect the sovereignty of the State against this “growing menace” through diplomatic negotiation or a strict exclusion Act, Governor Stephens added in his letter to Secretary of State Colby. Governor Stephens expressed tho hope that the initiative measure now being projected in California to deny Asiatics the right to all laud purchases or leaseholds would be accepted by the electorate by an overwhelming majority. He asked in the letter that immediate negoations bo entered into with the Empire of Japan to make impossible any farther “evasions” of existing immigration agreements, and to make such agreements as rigorous as possible. THE RACE PROBLEM. Forty years ago, says the report, the prehlem in California was essentially a Chinese problem, the Japanese population then being negligible. The Chinese immigrants arrived later in such numbers that the Pacific Slope was threatened with inundation by the Oriental influx, and the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, successfully checking Chinese entry to California. Then years ago there Were 41,356 Japanese, but in 1920 there are 87,279, or 80 to 85 per cent, of the whole of the Japanese population of continental United States. The Japanese in California have indicated a strong trend to land ownership and land control, and by their unquestioned industry and application, and by standards and methods, both in connection with hours of labour and standards of living, have gradually developed to a control of many of California’s important agricultural industries, adds the report to the United States Government.

At the present time they operate .623,7.52 acres of the very best lands of California. The increase within the last decade in acreage control has been ,412.9 per cent. The market value of crops has jumped from 6,23b,850 dollars in 1909, to 61,145,730 dollars In 1919, or approximately tenfold. Governor Stephens says Americans of the West admire the advance made by the Japanese nation, but they cannot tolerate California being overrun by Nippon, adding that “California views with alarm the rapid growth of these people within the last decade in population a.s well as in land control, and foresees in the not distant future the gravest’menace of serious conflict if this development is not immediately and effectively checked."