These men do not, of course, offer for
house-service, but work in the lumber mills, and with the least little
care and attention could be made most valuable. Some one ought to tell
them not to bring their old men with them, and better arrangements
should be made for their remitting money home to their villages. They
are not understood, of course; but they are not hated.
The objection is all against the Japanese. So far - except that they are
said to have captured the local fishing trade at Vancouver, precisely as
the Malays control the Cape Town fish business - they have not yet
competed with the whites; but I was earnestly assured by many men that
there was danger of their lowering the standard of life and wages. The
demand, therefore, in certain quarters is that they go - absolutely and
unconditionally. (You may have noticed that Democracies are strong on
the imperative mood.) An attempt was made to shift them shortly before I
came to Vancouver, but it was not very successful, because the Japanese
barricaded their quarters and flocked out, a broken bottle held by the
neck in either hand, which they jabbed in the faces of the
demonstrators. It is, perhaps, easier to haze and hammer bewildered
Hindus and Tamils, as is being done across the Border, than to stampede
the men of the Yalu and Liaoyang.[5]
[Footnote 5: Battles in the Russo-Japanese War.]
But when one began to ask questions one got lost in a maze of hints,
reservations, and orations, mostly delivered with constraint, as though
the talkers were saying a piece learned by heart. Here are some
samples: -
A man penned me in a corner with a single heavily capitalised sentence.
'There is a General Sentiment among Our People that the Japanese Must
Go,' said he.
'Very good,' said I. 'How d'you propose to set about it?'
'That is nothing to us. There is a General Sentiment,' etc.
'Quite so. Sentiment is a beautiful thing, but what are you going to
do?' He did not condescend to particulars, but kept repeating the
sentiment, which, as I promised, I record.
Another man was a little more explicit. 'We desire,' he said, 'to keep
the Chinaman. But the Japanese must go.'
'Then who takes their place? Isn't this rather a new country to pitch
people out of?'
'We must develop our Resources slowly, sir - with an Eye to the Interests
of our Children. We must preserve the Continent for Races which will
assimilate with Ours. We must not be swamped by Aliens.'
'Then bring in your own races and bring 'em in quick,' I ventured.
This is the one remark one must not make in certain quarters of the
West; and I lost caste heavily while he explained (exactly as the Dutch
did at the Cape years ago) how British Columbia was by no means so rich
as she appeared; that she was throttled by capitalists and monopolists
of all kinds; that white labour had to be laid off and fed and warmed
during the winter; that living expenses were enormously high; that they
were at the end of a period of prosperity, and were now entering on
lean years; and that whatever steps were necessary for bringing in more
white people should be taken with extreme caution.
