JAPANESE IN CANADA.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 April 1920, Page 9

JAPANESE IN CANADA.

| STRONG HOLD IN THE WEST, . Vancouver, Feb. 13. The Pacific littodal is once more ruhljinrr Us eyes with alarm at the extraordinary spread of Oriental sctt ement from Southern California to tlie Alaskan boundaries. Every year the perplex inn' problem is thrust to the front, in California, and the Legislature at Sacramento is always the scene of exciting episodes on the part of white-blooded Americans" endeavoring to force through the House some measure to oust land-grabbing Japanese or to prevent a further influx of the Orientals. The principal objoetion to the Japanese in California is that their standard of living is far below that of the white residents of the Pacific Coast., and their object has been to undercut fair competition and place white people at a disadvantage in consequence. The Japanese have overrun Californian fruit sections, and now a "corner" has been formed in potatoes hy Shima, the "potato king" of California.

The came up in the British Columbia Legislature on February 10, when Mr. J. W. Jones, Conservative member for South Okanagau, the fruit region of Western Canada, dwelt at length on the "Japanese menace" as it affected the Pacific Coast. He spoke of the greatly increased wealth of the Japanese in British Columbia and their determined efforts to acquire property and central irrigation works. He reviewed Japan's part in the war, and expressed his admiration for the Japanese people, but lie thought Canada should not admit citizens to whom she was not willing to extend in due time, equal privileges. There was great danger, he said, from tlie menace, of tlie foreigner. a.nrt lie thought the barrier should be raised.

Mr. Jones said the Japanese were rapidly acquiring control of various branches of the agricultural industry. In Seattle they owned 47 per cent, of the hotels and 25 per cent, of the grocery stores. They had fiSOO acres in the Yakima Valley—a celebrated fruit centre—and were tying ur> large holdings in British Columbia. There were 14,000 Japanese nlonc in British Columbia, and this population had doubled in 10 years.