THE ASIATIC QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8391, 3 April 1907, Page 5

THE ASIATIC QUESTION.

(To the Editor). Sir, —With your kind permission I wish to reply to a letter appearing in the columns of your valuable paper on Saturday last, and with the exception of the name of this town it was unsigned. Tactics like those abovementioned ought to be quite sufficient to show the people what a mean, despicable ;class of writers have been using the columns of the press for the. ostensible purpose of trying to strangle the movement that seriously affects the social and moral life of every man, woman and child in this fair colony. Your correspondent states that it is unfortunate for the Anti-Asiatic League, Masterton, that the sentiments expressed by the avowed leader thereof appeared in the Sydney Bulletin in the latter part of the year 1903, with this apparent difference, that the Bulletin article was well written. This writer has no knowledge of the existence of the article in question, but I am proud to think that your correspondent has unwittingly associated me with a paper that has consistently supported the policy of a t White Australia. But it is fortunate for the League that there is one paper in Masterton that voices healthy public sentiment on the Asiatic question. Your correspondent' says that John Cameron, Anti-Asiatic League, Masterton, should endeavour, if possible, to be original. See the two lines of prosey matter in the centre of his article. Mr Nobody, I would advise you to be original yourself before you question other people's originality. No sane person would attempt to associate me with the bad doings of the British Empire in the fourteenth century. My object is to strive to keep the present race pure, and not spend my time in raking up old and musty history. I freely admit that there is a considerable amount of poverty and misery in the great cities of the British Empire, and although there are many causes for this deplorable state of affairs, to my mind the further introduction of yellow hordes into this country, instead of remedying those evils, will only help to intensify them. Instead of reproducing badly the work of another writer, I wish to state that sarcasm is a very dangerous weapon and should be used with great care by letter writers. The original production that your correspondent referred to not copied from the Sydney Bulletin, but was copied from another paper, and was pure unadulterated and unexplained sarcasm, whereas the reproduction was explained in the columns of the Wairarapa Age of last Thursday, March 28th, and could be easily understood person that could see a hole through a ladder. Exception is also taken to me using the word Chow as applied to certain members of the Asiatic race, and twitting me for not taking up a nobler work than jibing and sneering at the man from China;' but if there is one thing more than another that your . correspondent should be proud of it is going out of his way to rake up the weak spots of the great white nation four hundred years ago. Mr Mas- : terton, look at the Chinese nation four hundred years ago, and look at at to-day, and hold your head in • shame. Now, 'Mr Editor, to use your own words, as expressed in,, your j leader of March 18th last, "surely it | is absurd to ,accept the habits and character of a handful of Chinese in any locality as being sufficient grounds for admitting or excluding Asiatics from our colony." As a few pro-Chinese advocates have consistently used this argument in favour of the Chinese, I , will en-deavour-too show them by the production of statistics taken from the Official Year Book of this colony and the Blue Books o£ the Transvaal, South Africa, the latest returns available in both cases. The latest criminal returns, as set out in the •New Zealand Official Year Book 1906, shows then the number of Chinese imprisoned, after conviction, was 7.44 per thousand of the total Chinese population in New Zealand. The same returns show that the number of European population imprisoned, after convicton, was 3.36 per thousand of the total European population in New Zealand. The Chinese employed on the Rand are the- subject of a report in the latest '. iElue .Books of-the Transvaal administrative affairs. The average num- . ber of Chinese employed on the Rand during the year was 47,600, and the total number ! convicted of all offences was 13,532, or 234.28 per thousand of the total Chinese employed. Of these 11,754, or 246.94 per thousand, were convicted of offences against the regulations; of the balance of 1,178, there were 37.35 convicted of criminal offences; 246 were convicted before a judge and jury, 26 of murder, seven of attempted murder, and 210 of housebreaking. Summarised the figures for imprisonment after conviction, per thousand of population, are—

White. Chinese. Chinese. New Zealand. New Zealand. Rand. 3.36 7.44 37.35 I have gone to considerable trouble in working out those figures, and a. careful perusal of them will I hope, serve to show the New Zealand people the dangers of allowing any further introduction of Chinese into this colony: The figures taken from official sources show beyond question that where the Chinese are in.small numbers not so much notice is taken of them, but where they have succeeded in getting a footing in large numbers all forms of crime and disease are rampant. If any further information in regard to the Chinese employed in the compounds in South : Africa, where they are shown in the reports to be employed in great numbers, see Bucknill's report of the criminal tendencies of , the Chinese on the Rand. In conclusion, are the people of this colony going to look on calmly at the encroachment of those yellow peoples, when the great 80,000,000 nation of America is taking steps to meet the danger. '• Wake up young Australasia, or some day, possibly in the near future, when you are unprepared, the yellow man will come along and sweep you clean' Off; the face of this earth.—l am, etc., JOHN CAMERON. Masterton, April 2nd, 1907. .