AGAINST EXCLUSION

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 24, 23 October 1907, Page 7

AGAINST EXCLUSION

KIPLING ON ASIATICS. CANADA'S CRY FOR UNSKILLED LABOUR. NOT ENOUGH WHITES TO SUPERVISE. I. ;DT TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. (Rec. Oct. 22, 9.58 p.m.) : el ■'...-.', , r Ottawa, October 22. ,g Mr. Rudyard Kipling, speaking at a s . gathering under the auspices of the Canape dian Club hero, ontored a powerful plea ; against the oxclusioii of Asiatics. | 0 •',' Ho said ho. had overy where been struck j throughout the Dominion with tho strong, 5 persistent cry for more help and more people, j He found , Hindus employed as unskilled j, labour, which labour tho whites declined to 0 undertak'o. There was not enough whito (1 labour to supervise yt-h'e unskilled. If, lie added, Canadians proposed tho development of the country on tho lines of a closo corporay- tion, their glory would pass from themi It e ' wn ? as a ."at'ion among , 'great'nations that [- Canada would bb judged. '"■',' |f. Tho speech was greeted with cheers. 1 -Tho/Premier, Sir Wilfrid Laurior, cordially i- -seconded, the' vote of thanks to Mr, Kipling!; l> ■ ' ■ ;! ■ .■ : ; . . . i' ■ ■ i., The cordial 'terms in ( which ' the' .Canadian I. Premier greeted the anti-exclusion i speech' Df i' Mr. Rudyard:Kipling seem to suggest that Mr. - Lemieux, Canada's emissary,. wUI not carry "i :,r -n' l im to ' 'Tokio/ any that t> ;wiU. bo ■,;violently ;. counter ■ to -Japan'-' f eso feeling. Japan has stated that sho does not f favour formal revision of 'tho treaty wifi I, Canada, and , prefers to "administratively t check" the rush of Japanese across the Pacific. - Such administrative checking may possibly p provide a line of compromise. Under the treaty referred 'to, , Japanese immigrants to ■ Canada, before leaving Japan, must secure mssports from their Government, which agrees to issue not morij- than one passport per month., for each ■ district j : and <-as ' there aro : forty districts, that would mean a maximum of 480 per year. But 1 tho Japanese, it is said. evade'all restrictions by stopping: for, a while ■ in, tho American,.possession,. .Honolulu, and ■ then coming to the Pacific coast'in boatloads. ,Over ! a thousand 1 were landed in British . Columbia from the Jyumoric on July; 26. In ;i one lot there were, .it is said,,;over 400 war veterans. Chinese pay a poll tax of in ; Columbia; Japjineso'' pay nothing. ' • • :. : According to \a. writer,'in n Homo paper, ; "The extent to which Asiatic labour, is emr ployed in British -Columbia is somewhat ]■ 'astonifih . toi tliev:'visitor. • Most, of . the. . hotols. in. ,Vancouver,i.nnd ..Victoria have ', either Japanese;or , ChineßO sonants, and at t leapt one-half of the : workmen in the. lumber industries of the .provinco belong.to ,the yel- ' low race. Inquiry shows that white, labour 1 is , not obtainable', anil that , Chinese 'or Japan- ; .-. ,ese workman are, therefore, .essential ,to i the development of .local industries. It would 1 seem tliao Vancouver first, awok'ciicd to the ; 'menace of the yellow, mair , on the occasion : .of Prince Fiislumi's. recont, .-visit; when, no : fewer than 7000 , Japanese paraded, the.prin- '' .cipal' tliorougl\farcs.:,lt was.estimated at tho .'tinie that thert: wero about the-same number: 'otV Chinese in. the; city, making,', say,, H.OOO ; j Asiatics' out' of a, total population of 50,000 ■ [Persons; : There 'is far : less - 'objection to rho Chirieso than, to ■ the. Japaneso, for the reason ; that tho latter are regarded, as aggressive;Tho ambition of tho'latter is to control 'in '. idustry as employers, of. labour-rather than ,to.,i;cmain. as employees.',' . .' . ,