Oriental Immigration

Mr. President and Gentlemen,--In speaking today on the Oriental question, and in discussing its various aspects, I wish to emphasize the important significance which I think it deserves. This Empire Club, as I understand it, is formed to preserve the traditions of the British people, to maintain its institutions and its policies. Now, what is happening on the Pacific Coast at present is a menace to all three. Hence it cannot be a matter of unconcern to the people of Ontario and particularly to the members of the Empire Club. It has been said that the history of Canada is the history of immigration. It might also be said with equal truth that the problems of Canada are the problems of race. (Applause)

Unless we do something and do it soon the boundary between Canada and Asia will cease to be the Pacific Ocean-it will be the Rocky Mountains. About one hundred years ago the white man first looked upon the Province of British Columbia, and if the present influx from the Orient to Canada continues, it will be less than one hundred years before the last white man has looked upon it.

Mr. John Nelson was managing editor of "The Victoria Times" for a number of years and later the publisher of "The Vancouver World." He was a delegate from Canada to two Imperial Press Conferences and is a many-sided journalist, a graphic writer and a vigorous speaker.

Ever since British Columbia entered Confederation in 1872, this matter of Oriental immigration has been a matter of perpetual protest and is one that merits the consideration of the rest of the people of Canada. Our viewpoint has been sustained by everyone of the Oriental commission in British Columbia. In 1900 Japan had absolutely stopped immigration to Canada, and it was on the strength of this that a Treaty was signed by Canada and Japan, whereby the prohibited head tax on Japanese entering the country was obviated. Hardly had ink dried on the Treaty then we had the most terrible influx of Japanese immigrants in 1907 that we had ever experienced.

We think this is a problem for Statesmen at Ottawa, but we have not had much indication that they are on the job. What we are facing now in British Columbia is what your sons and our sons will have to face tomorrow. In a province with a population of five hundred thousand or six hundred thousand people we have upward of fifty thousand Orientals. We think the danger point has been reached. (Applause)

We have set up standards for our people which make the occupation taken up by the Japanese in Canada particularly lucrative to themselves. Japan has taken steps to protect her civilization by excluding the foreigners from taking lucrative employment there. If a Committee of the Canadian Government should sit across the table from the Tokio Government, explain our position fully and state that we would take as many permanent settlers from Japan as they would take from Canada, the number of immigrants we would get would be negligible.

Another important phase is that about half of the Japanese settlers in British Columbia have been naturalized. The most dangerous thing in the world, in my judgment, is to admit people to naturalization and deny them their political rights. There is something more dangerous--to give an unassimilable people political rights. But they must get them ultimately.

The circumstances under which Asiatics first came to Canada are of interest: If they did not come originally by violation of any Government they performed a service that filled a need. The first Chinese came to British Columbia after the gold rush in California. The oldest Canadian-born Chinaman is Cumyow, a well known local Vancouver merchant, notary and interpreter. He was born sixty-one years ago at Fort Douglas, above New Westminster, where his father, a California merchant, started a store, and traded with Whites and Chinese alike on their way to the diggings of Cariboo.

But the great influx came in the early eighties with the building of the C.P.R. All the circumstances are recalled by Mr. Cambie, the Octogenerian Railroad Engineer, who hail and hearty is still in the C.P.R. service.

The Japanese were years later in coming. They date from about thirty years ago. They quietly appropriated the silk and lacquer trade which Chinese merchants had built up with Japan. They were already in considerable numbers at Steveston when riots broke out among the fishermen of the Fraser, and the Japs, knowing neither union card nor union obligations, took the place of the strikers. More of them followed and many fishermen from the vast fishing districts in Japan soon began to make their way to British Columbia. How speedily they Orientalized Steveston I will tell you later on. In solving one economic problem they remained to create another. But it is fair to remember that both the Asiatic races against which an outcry is now directed have made a striking physical contribution to the development of the country. What has been stated with respect to the two Mongolian races applies in limited way to the Hindoos. Most of the Sikhs now living in British Columbia came in the years 1907 and 1908 when nearly 5,000 landed in Canada. Here again the principle impelling motive seems to have been the promise of work and wages dazzling enough to an East Indian but below the current wages then in force in British Columbia. A wily Brahman was the principal agent, and his representations were supported naturally enough by interested transportation companies.

The Hindoo invasion reached its most acute stage in July and August of 1914, when the Komagata Maru brought a ship load of them to Vancouver, where they were refused a landing and where very serious trouble ensued before they could be returned to their native land. With that exception there has been no serious trouble with the Hindoo, and immigration from that source is now practically nil, principally owing to the Immigration Act which provides that any immigrants who have come to Canada otherwise than by continuous journey from countries of which they were citizens on through tickets purchased in that country may be excluded. Transportation facilities at present do not make this possible, hence travelling from India to Canada has fallen off.

During the last twenty years in influx of Chinese into Canada far exceeded that of the other two races under consideration. From 1900 to 1907 it practically ceased. It reached its peak between the years 1910 and 1914, when more than 30,000 came to Canada. In 1918 and 1919 more than 4,300, came in. The total for the last twenty-seven or twenty-eight years is approximately 33,000.

All these Chinese did not pay head tax. The exempt clause included merchants, their wives and children, Consular Agents, their families and suites; teachers and men of science. There is still a more numerous class which is exempt under what is known as C-19 Registration. This Registration is filled out by any Chinese returned to China for a period of twelve months or less, and entitles him or her to re-enter Canada without a head tax. To show how this form of travelling has expanded it may be mentioned that last year only 363 Chinese paid head tax, while 5,519 came in under C-19.

It is hard to understand the alarm of many when they see one of the China Empresses disgorging thousands of Chinese from her capacious hold at Pier A. in Vancouver as it resembles somewhat of a Yellow invasion in progress. The large number who travel under Return Registration Certificates and the large number who often come in on Bond to Cuba and Mexico are perhaps responsible for the misapprehension on the part of onlookers.

In the case of the Hindoo there has been no immigration for the last seven or eight years excepting twelve during the last fiscal year. Indeed so far as published official figures are concerned only one Sikh has arrived in the last eight or nine years, while the total for the last score of years is a little over five thousand.

The Japanese figures do not disclose the same tendency. Immigration of them has continued since 1904 and 1905 at a fairly even figure with a disquieting tendency to increase. In 1916 and 1917 648 came in; the next year 883, and the following year 1,178. In 1920 there was a falling off although the total stood at 711. The total for the twenty-one years under review is almost 20,000.

In 1908 Japanese landed in the greatest numbers in any one year as a direct result of the Federal Royal Commission of 1908 owing to the visit of Honourable M. Lemiux to the Orient under a so-called "Gentlemen's agreement" whereby the Japanese undertook to limit the number of labourers going to Canada to 400. The result was that in that year the influx of Japanese fell within the prescribed limits. The Consul, Mr. Saito, said that they had kept within that number and it was not the wish of their Government to exceed the number mentioned and that the Japanese Government had scrupulously observed the compact.

In passing it may be mentioned that the agreement in question is not available in the office of the Consuls. They have never seen it. It is not expressed in Statute or Orderin-Council at Ottawa. It is on file in the Department of External Affairs under the immediate custody of the Prime Minister. It has been seen by a few members of Parliament and Ministers, but it not a published document and hence the difficulty of deciding whether or not its terms are being observed.

The Japanese present a greater problem than the Chinese. They are assertive, truculent, have a National consciousness and are a little patronizing sometimes. Immediately that provision came into effect a wave of passion for learning swept the Oriental with the result that we have loads of so-called students who soon afterwards appeared in white aprons in the restaurants. In 1920 there were 1,700 immigrants from China.

Up to this point we have been studying what may be termed the external aspects of Oriental immigration, those which arrived upon the advent of the immigrants to these shores. It is upon these that anti-Asiatic leaders and agitators usually fasten in their periodical outbursts of protest. But the lapse of time and the steady inflow has offset this. It is the domestic side of the question which is today probably the more troublous of the two. Negotiations and arrangements with the two Governments are likely to be less difficult than the adjustments of our National affairs because of the unknown quantity in our National problem which the native-born and naturalized foreigner presents. The two difficulties interlock. But any attempt at the solution of one is bound to be mixed up in the other. This is the task before Canadian Statesmen, and it is one of the most delicate with which they have to deal.

What political and citizen rights should the nativeborn Oriental receive? How far may this be extended to naturalized Asiatics? The answer to these two urgent questions can be more authoratively dealt with by those who have the power. How far for instance is the presence of the Orientals in British Columbia impinging upon existing conditions? How far has it affected the social state? To what extent is it going to affect the future of the Province? Perhaps a passing glance at a few localities in the Province where Asiatics have secured a foothold will best illustrate the essential facts.

The transcontinental travellers will recall Ashcroft. He will remember that beautiful valley where the river pours its limpid waters into the turbulent Fraser. Ashcroft in the old days was famous as a base for the trade of the cariboo, and was the longest stage line in the world. The building of the Government Railroad lies far to the north. Some years ago a fire wiped out this section of the little town. It was rebuilt by the Chinese. Today half the population of the town is Chinese. Its two hotels are Chinese. Its stores are Chinese. There are Chinese everywhere. In the fields you will find them and their helpers planting, sowing, reaping. The census of the Provincial Department of Agriculture shows that in this section 2,500 acres are owned by Chinese, and almost as much more is under lease. But that is but part of the story. Each owner has many helpers, living as no white man will live, working longer than any white man will work, and creating conditions against which no white man can compete.

Go down to the Okanagan Valley where in blossom and harvest time it is the fairest of all Canadian vales. It is still a land of lovely homes, of people of station, of culture and means. From one end to the other of the Okanagan Lake, a distance of about 80 miles there are perhaps 20,000 souls. Of that number 3,300 went to the war without hesitation and without counting the cost. While they were away a danger which had long menaced the community became acute. Labour was lacking; crops had to be harvested. In many instances payment had to be met. In many cases the strain proved too heavy and the land had to be sold.

The ready cash buyers, and the available hired hands were invariably Chinamen and the Japanese. Today the situation is painfully acute. In towns like Kelowana it is full of concern. Public sentiment is alert and vigilent, but gold talks. Some declared that the Japanese Government financed its people to come in there and to purchase the various enterprises. This may be dismissed on its face as very improbable. Their leading men deny it and there is really nothing to sustain the theory, but it shows to what extent yellow men are encroaching upon the white man's preserves. The Chinaman knows irrigation perfectly. He fits in naturally to any place where water has to be brought by the ground route instead of from the sky supply to the thirsty plant and tree. When the soldiers returned they found that the Chinese were working everywhere, sometimes as bosses over white men and white girls. The Japanese were working on the well-known fifty percent basis, an arrangement whereby the lessee does the work, cultivates and irrigates the land, markets the stock and divides up with the owner.

A public indignation meeting was called and one of their chief spokesmen was there. A mere lad in appearance, he was the mouth-piece of the Japanese and he performed his duties satisfactorily, that is for his own people. He recalled that they had bought a certain piece of land, about 40 acres, which he himself now cultivates, and he almost persuaded his audience that he and his people were in the right. He was indeed a most plausible speaker.

This young man owned as fine a piece of land as could be found anywhere in Canada, growing onions, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, all testifying to the industry of the owner.

In the fruit districts the Oriental has secured a foothold from which he is not likely to let go very easily. From a point below Hope where the Fraser River emerges from its long race through the mountain canyons it pursues its course for 70 or 80 miles to the sea. In the earlier geological age the river entered at this point. The long and singular alluvial valley which the river hurriedly traverses its sedimentary deposit which year by year has been left there by the receding stream. By reason of its proximity to Vancouver, the character of the soil and ample transportation facilities, its railway system and tram car, it is peculiarly adapted for strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb, gooseberries and other fruits. In the strawberry season, husband, wife and children may be seen taking their places as pickers. These people are, as I have said before, very industrious and work very long hours, much longer than any white man prefer to work. In the cities a certain, evolution is noticed. A great many of the stores are owned and run by Japanese and Chinese. There is no doubt that they are slowly but surely ousting the white man and there does not seem to be any way of checking them. These suave and slippered people do a thriving trade and sell everything from silks to opium. They cater to white and yellow alike.

At a meeting in Vancouver some time ago the President of the Trades and Labour Council made some statements with respect to the inroads which the yellow men made on industries in which white labour was primarily affected. He claimed that in the city of Vancouver alone there were 56 Chinese or Japanese who owned the tailor shops, each employing at least three tailors. He pointed out that there were something like 700 Mongolians employed in restaurants and hotels, and that there were 15 Chinese and Japanese barber shops, each with two or more assistants. Many of the latter he claimed were women.

To appreciate fully the danger of such a large number of the yellow men in British Columbia it is necessary to remember an important distinction between Europeans and Chinese in their method of settlement. The former usually strive to maintain their insularity. This they seem to fear will not survive contact with the predominant races. One of the chief anxieties of the Government is to combat and overcome this tendency, and to inoculate with Western ideas and ultimately assimilate the new comers.

The Oriental works on an entirely different system. He knows his white man, has evidently appraised his capacity or rather the lack of it for competitive labour against the Asiatic, and has no fear of the outcome. He also knows that racial instincts and prejudices make assimilation with the whites practically out of the question. So he boldly buys the most fertile lands, the most developed business stands, and the most lucrative businesses from his white neighbour and settles down to a policy of, "freeze out." It rarely if ever fails. Ostracism by his white neighbour has no terrors for him. But the alarm of the white settlers who find that their children and the children of the yellow men' are playing together may be readily understood. The white man sees them playing together on one side of the fence and it is not long before he finds a Chinaman or a Japanese living on the other side. He is between the two. Is it any wonder then, that he becomes pannicky? The result is that he finds his property has become so depreciated that he is glad to sell out for whatever his foreign competitors will agree to pay him. German penetration was never more effective than is that of the Mongolian when he elects to establish a community at any point which he desires. It is this quiet relentlessness which has created suspicion throughout British Columbia.

Canada has only a few hundred miles of sea coast on the Pacific; it is all in British Columbia and it is almost solely devoted to the fishing population. Let me tell you that the majority of the fishermen out on the Pacific Coast are not white men, but yellow men, chiefly Japanese. That is another occupation from which they have ousted the white man. With the rapidly growing importance of the Pacific in world affairs there is a touch of the tragic in this quiet but effective abandonment of Canadian and British sailors from their natural calling.

Canada, for instance, can scarcely regard with equanimity a situation which today gives 873 out of a total of 1,376 of the gill net salmon licenses on the Fraser to Orientals, and only 123 to Canadians, 37 to Englishmen, and 28 to Scotchmen. Even Scandinavians have but 138 of these licenses and Newfoundlanders have but 14.

Legislative action has protected the metalliferous mining of the Province from the penetration which is proceeding in the case of agriculture and fishing. But it has been less effective in the case of the timber industry. Here, the first by resolution of the Legislature, and latterly by specific legislation the Province has debarred these people from the Crown Lands of the Province, but pending an appeal to the Highest Courts to decide the merits of the case, the latter is not pressing action against the yellow men, and Ottawa is suspending any veto.

In the meantime the logging camps are multiplying space and are to a great extent being operated by the Japanese. Perhaps a thousand men are now so employed and there is considerable danger that that number will be increased unless drastic action is taken. Many of them are operating under arrangements with white owners. The logging and timber industry may be fairly described, therefore, as one of the threatened trades in Canada.

It is one of the boasts of the Japanese that they have scrupulously kept their agreement, and they ask that the British people keep theirs. Premier Massie of New Zealand, speaking in Vancouver some time ago paid a fine tribute to his Pacific neighbours when he described how promptly, when required, their war ships steamed up the Antipodean Dominion to convey New Zealand troops to the seat of war. Yet it is a fact that one of the reasons why today the Japanese are not paying poll tax is because the agreement made by their Government has been broken. Speaking on January 15; 1906, in the House of Commons, the Premier, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, used these words, "Some few years ago when we increased the poll tax it had been in existence for many years against the Chinese immigration. We persistently refused to extend the same prohibition against Japanese immigration. The reason we gave them was that Japan was an Ally of Great Britain. .

At the present time the Japanese Government does not allow immigration from its own provinces, with the exception of a very few from each province."

Sir Wilfrid Laurier's reference here was to decide the understanding which has been in force for years between Canada and Japan, and it first came in the form of instructions to the Governors of the Japanese prefectures issued by Viscount Aoki, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Prohibiting entirely the immigration of labourers to Canada or the United States.

Usually speaking the Oriental is as law-abiding as his white neighbour. In the Police Courts he appears at no disadvantage compared to the whites. His chief crime is gambling, which to him of course is no crime at all. I do not think that you will consider that a game of Fan Tan is more harmful than say a game of poker. Is a Chinese Lottery any worse than a coupon contest. I once heard a story of a Japanese who was brought up in a Vancouver Court for some misdemeanor. The interpreter said, "The prisoner asks me to tell you how ashamed he is that by his act he has brought disgrace upon his country." Would a Saxon in a Tokio Court behave as well?

It is frankly admitted by some of the Japanese themselves that the rush for naturalization papers of their people is not due to any zeal for Canadian citizenship, but from a knowledge that otherwise they could not secure fishing licenses. Yet they say that having lived in this country for some years they cannot live in Japan. They want to be Canadians if we would let them. (Loud applause)

PRESIDENT WILKINSON extended the thanks of the Club to the speaker for his interesting and instructive address.