JAPAN AND AMERICA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 1, 2 June 1913, Page 3

JAPAN AND AMERICA.

QUESTION VITAL TO BRITISH I COLUMBIA. London, April 24. The. statement attributed to the Hon. Rudolphe Lemiux after his mission to Tokio that, but for the British flag, Canada might be compelled to discuss the Japanese immigration difficulty 'under cover of Japanese guns in Vancouver harbor, suggests that the British Government is watching with acute anxiety the development of the Japanese question in California. Canada's immigration compact with Japan follows closely that between the United States and the Mikado's Government, as shown in the recent discussions

of the treaty in the Canadian House of Commons, and diplomats agree that | should California's action compel Japan to insist upon citizens' rights equal to those granted white races, the whole Question of .Japanese status in British Columbia as well as in California and other States will be raised in a most awkward form. DENY -MONGOLIAN ORIGIN. The London Times says: —"The Japanese themselves are said to deny their Mongolian origin, but even the United States Supreme Court can not pierce the mists in which' the birth of the Japanese race is shrouded. The real contention is that by the adoption of western civilisa- | tion and the signal successes of their arms by laud and sea, they earned the right to substantial relief from the disabilities which beset the Asiatic in other lands. The situation is so fraught with possibilities that acrimonious discussion we earnestly hope will he avoided. Public feeling in Japan is strongly aroused; this is made clear .from the many indignation meetings that have been held, i.nd the Japanese consider the immediate dispute to be merely symi bolical of the whole question of their 1 future status in .the world. Japan is thought to be cherishing no impossible dreams of gaining a foothold on the American continent, but she is keenly resentful of the implications of racial inferiority. It is the humiliation that wounds her proud, sensitive people, and a nation that has newly won her place in the world feels acutely that her sacrifices and struggles hare not yet achieved for her all the recognition which [ is now due." I It is anticipated here that if California persists in her alien land legislation, the Japanese Government will be forced by popular clamor to demand naturalisation and other rights for Japanese on the same footing as white immigrants. The exact position of naturalised Canadians of foreign origin is to be probed in the House of Commons here by a question to Sir lulward Grey respecting the three Canadians recently sentenced to Siberia for life for evading military service in Russia. Sir Edward Grey is being asked whether Sir Wilfrid Laiirier is correct in saying that the British Goitijaeut has declined to intervene for