THE CHINESE CURSE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8368, 27 February 1907, Page 6

THE CHINESE CURSE.

(To the Editor)

Sir, —I was gratified to note in a late issue of your widely-read paper that Mr Cameron had been speaking on the Chinese question, and 1 say "well done Masterton!" if over in your part of this Island this question is properly thrashed out. Just a few lines on the subject. As regards increasing the poll tax to £I,OOO, that is a good, wise and sensible idea. Certainly, it would bar the "yellow gent" from hopping on to our shores as a present, but would it get rid of the yellow man that we have here at present. ' Would it? I answer emphatically "No." You see it would bar Mr John entering our ports in' such large numbers, but those we have here already would hang on all the tighter as they would have the whole field to themselves, and as our population increased they wouW merge into full-blown capitalists, and would settle down in earnest in "God's Own Country," and think it "welly ni\" Now, Sir, if there is one person on this planet who believes in giving woman her due it is the writer. I believe in woman having her rights, and have stood up time and again to give her them. Ah! and for many a year to come will do so again if the fates are willing, so here you are:—l will be impartial and give facts, and the fact of the matter is that but for our women the Chinese would have to get his traps together and get out of the country so far as t the shops, etc , are concerned. Why, women actually wait outside on the footpaths for their turn to be served by the yellowman, whilst ofttimes the white man's shop is empty, and the white man supports a white family, and a white New Zealand. I say to women, emphatically and plainly, that the matter is in their hands, and for their own sakes, for their children's sake, and for the sake of the nation, let them pause and consider what they are doing. They are (perhaps unthinkingly) traitors to their country, and pouring gold into China, and to the China that is preparing to one day rise and "smash" the white man. It is disgusting to watch women actually waiting their turn to be served, whilst thoughout the Australasian colonies the yellow man is making a toy of her sisters and their children to such an extent that if the truth were actually known it would stagger the women who patronise the yellow man with the crime they are committing by patronising year after year the Chinese. Of course, some men are as bad, and ought to be ashamed of themselves, but in the main it is the women who are responsible for the Chinese waxing fat in these beautiful islands, whilst the white man has often to go through the Bankruptcy Court, and so long as the women stick to "John" as they do, just so long will he stick to this country. The poll tax is well to keep them out, but to drive them out is a matter that is in the hands of the women f®lk, and that is by not patronising the white man's curse —the Chinese. I do not wish to offend the opposite sex, but I must give them facts, and I have studied the subject in the heart of the big cities of Australia, where the sights that meet the eye would sicken any true wellwisher of the white race. I say to women-—"Be true to yourself," to your country, to your children, and to the flag that protects you, and to your own interests, and once and for all drop patronising your greatest enemy, the yellow man."—l am, etc., ARTHUR PICARD, 1 Hawera, February 24th, 1907.