“THE SPOTLIGHT.”

Putaruru Press, Volume II, Issue 36, 19 June 1924, Page 3

“THE SPOTLIGHT.”

ASKING FOR IT. The Japanese protest against the exclusion clause in the Immigration Act began by expressing Japan’s astonishment at the enactment, and says that the discrimination against the Japanese is not only at variance with the spirit of liberty and equality heretofore maintained, but also that the Washington Government overlooks the resulting clash of feeling between the two peoples.

Trouble generally comes to those who ask for it, and if ever a people were asking for trouble, surely it is the American nation at this present. The Yankee psychology has never been harder to understand than it is to-day. For years America has stood for the national embodiment of the principles of liberty, fraternity and equality and yet we now see her denying those rights to the citizens of a great sister Power. One can readily understand the resentment of the Japanese and their boycott of American goods is not to be wondered at. The people that come among them advocating the continuance of brotherly love have been brother-like enough to forbid the Japs entrance to the strangers’ shores and the little men of Nippon are trying to find the consistency. A NEGATIVE QUANTITY. Not that consistency has ever been a strong point of the American people. Uniformity in thought, speech and action has never been one of their national characteristics. One has only to quote from Kipling’s well-known verses, “An American ” (written years before the war which the Yanks allege they won): — Calm-eyed he scoffs at sword and crown, Or panic-blinded stabs and slays: Blatant he bids the world bow down, Or cringing begs a crust of praise; Or, sombre-drunk, at mine and mart, He dubs his dreary brethren Kings. His hands are black with blood—his heart Leaps, as a babe’s, at little things.

It is only necessary to set out a film “ shot ” by an American producer for the edification or entertainment of his fellow-countrymen, in order to find out the expression, “ his order to find out the truth of the expression, “ his heart leaps, as a babe’s, at little things.” THE WRATH TO COME. But the childishness of the American will not, apparently, save him from the wrath of the Japanese people if he persists in going too far. That trouble is brewing in the East must be obvious to even the meanest American intelligence. At present the cloud is no bigger than a man’s hand—a little brow’n man’s hand—but it is one of portent to the United States of America. It is not too late yet to review the position. The spirit That bids him flout the Law he makes, That bids him make the Law he flouts, Till, dazed by many doubts, he wakes The drumming guns that—have no doubts

should come to the rescue of the American citizen even at this, the eleventh hour. The Japanese say, in effect: “ You pray with us but you will not play with us; you treat with us but you will not meet with us; you trade with us—but you are afraid of us.” And they ask (so far politely) if that sort of thing is to continue. Will the answer be heard? Will it come soon, plainly and satisfactorily, from the mouths of the diplomats, or will it be drowned in the iron voices of “ the drumming guns ” ? “ SPOT.”