THE WILY JAP.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 2, 27 September 1907, Page 7

THE WILY JAP.

a THE TROUBLE ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE. VIEWS OP ONE WHO WAS THERE. AN 'INSIDIOUS INVASION. Mr. J. Hoggard, of Wellington, who has just returned from a lengthy visit to the western slope of tho United States and Canada, was in San Francisco during a recrudescence of the Westerner against tho Japanese, which has become wliito hot during tho past month or so. Is it exaggerated ? He recalls one incident "that actually happened when he was visiting the Earthquake City, which ho contends goes to strengthen the opinion ho expresses— namely, that the racial troubles on the Pacific slope, if they did originate in tho.white man's resentment of the Japanese passive' invasion of America, wore actively fomented by the yellow men themselves, who,; it is claimed, exaggerated every possible incirlont- into an insult to Mppon. The occasion referred to was a street row b-Dtwoeiv unionists and non-unionists, which ended in a melee in which bricks and road metal played bloody part. Tho row, Mr. Hoggard, states, happened to take place in front of a Japanese restaurant, and when the "hoys" started to play in grim earliest the Jap. "cook-chop was considerably damaged. This incident tha Japanese Consul magnified into an organised attack on hearth and home, and called wildly to Tokiu that it amounted to a national insult; and there ensued a pnssago between Washington and tho Japanese capital, which at one tirao looked really dangerous. " No Room." "There is no room for them (the Japs.), 1 ' says Mr. Hoggard, "in a white man's country. Tho first row over wis school at San Francisco was over a movement to separate tho Japs, from whites, because' they found sevouteen- and cightcen-year-old Japanese men attending school with white girls of a mucn tondorer age; but tho matter was takon up by the Japanese as another insult to the flag, and in harmony with their rocent policy they resolved to assert themselves, while exciting sympathy through misrepresentation 'if not subterfuge. "The knowledge that this is so has hardened up tho American and his cousin in the north, and the alarmingly increasing' number of Japanese immigrants. has roused the sleep," white man to ii sense of the danger that exists. "I visited most of the Chineso and Japanese quarters in tho western cities, and will never forgot tho degrading horrors that have travelled with the yellow mon. I even went into soveral of tho vilest opium dens and saw sights which made one mad to think that tho wliito race should be brought so low under the heol of Asia —utterly destroyed and wholly dishonoured. How Canada is Invaded. "Under an existing treaty between Canada and Japan only five hundred of the latter are permitted to go into Canada in a year, but it is said that over fifteen hundred settled in tho Dominion last year, evading the law by making a stay at Honolulu for such time as enabled them to becomo citizens of the United States, and in tliat_ thin guise they wero allowed in. Each' Japanese arriving in Canada has to show wealth' to tho extent of t wenty-fivo dolkrs. ■To uic poor Jap. who travels to Canada via Honolulu thi3 sum is advanced by wily financiers at tho latter port, who charge a' heavy rate of interest, which with tho principal is collected by watchful agones within the Dominion." "What work do the Japaneso do '{" "What do they do ? Well, they and the Chineso absolutely control tho sal-mon-canning industry on tho Frasor ltiyor and elsewhere, and they are the chief factor in tho lumber trado of the West, which was formerly run with white labour. For a Jap., tho Jap. will work long ham-3 for rice and a place to slcop in, but when ho works for a white man ho wants union wages— or a littlo under—tho best of food and short hours. Tho Jap. is liorcoly patriotic and always ha 3 a definite object in view, either to learn English, learn a business, or to learn tho ways of white men and how to defeat them; and it is all for love of country, lie is only cheap labour so long as it suits him, and is as slim as ho is untrustworthy. i "With all their show of resent- ' merit, 1 don't holiovo that the Americans realise what tho insidious invasion by the yellow man means, any more than do the people of '',\'olh::jet'jii, who have already lost two trickis i.i tho commercial hand to the voilow ■ .in -t!i:> iruit business and tnt L.undry industry."