Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
OCR
THE VITAL ISSUE 5
JAPANESE IMMIGRATION INTO CANADA.
Premier Laurier’s Speech in the Canadian Parliament.
Reprinted by courtesy of the Gaelic American. ‘
Mr. Borden made a lengthy speech and a debate en-
sued. The policy of the Government was challenged, and
Sir Wilfrid Laurier in his reply undertook to point out
that Canada as a colony of Great Britain must be guided
in her action in the matter of Japanese immigration by
her obligations to the Imperial Government. His strong-
est argument was, therefore, a statement of the position
in which Canada was placed by the Anglo-Japanese alli-
ance, which he distinctly declared is “defensive and of-
fensive.”
Sir VVilfrid Laurier’s speech is printed verbatim in the
ofhcial “House of Commons Debates," Fourth Session,
Tenth Parliament, for January 28, 1908, from column 2090
to column 2101. Following is the exact text of it copied
from that oiiicial record:
The policy of this government is to obtain the restriction
of Japanese immigration to our shores, not by hostile leg-
islation, but by the voluntary, the friendly action of the
Japanese authorities themselves. Sir, the central fact in
this question, around which all other considerations re-
volve, is the fact that in all countries where the Caucasian
race and the oriental races come together there is at once
an antagonism. There is a sharp, well-marked antagonism
on the part of all white races against the Mongolian race.
Of this fact we have been well aware for a long time;
but the fact has been still more clearly put before us
in the admirable speech of my honorable friend and col-
league, the Postmaster-General, just a week ago today.
My honorable friend, during the course of his observa-
tions, dilated at some length, though certainly not at
too great a length, upon this aspect of the question. He
gave us valuable information, until then unknown to us,
though we have had on this point information from our
colleagues from British Columbia. For my part, I had
believed, as had many others, that there was at the bot-
‘Om of this antagonism only a labor problem. I had
thought, and many others had thought, that white labor-
ers objected to associating themselves-with oriental labor-
Us on account of their different modes of living. But
We know that there is another consideration which ex-
tends far beyond the labor problem. The P0P“l3tl0n Of
British Columbia is a small population as yet. The
50W of immigration from Europe has not yet crossed
the Rocky Mountains and not yet reached the province
of the Pacific Ocean.’ The population of that province
is small and sparsefand there is an apprehension, a
well understood apprehension which we can all share,
that if the current of immigration from Asia were to
be allowed to flow in free and unchecked, the balance of
Dower might pass from the one race to the other.
A Difiicult Problem.
This is a. problem, sir, which no government in this
c"““t1'.‘Y can aEord to ignore. This is a problem which
has engrossed the attention of all governments from the
early days of confederation-I may say from the day of
British Columbia's admission into this union of D1’0Vl“Ce5-
This Problem, difficult at all times and under all circum-
stances, has been made doubly diflicult-nay, ten times
more diEicu1g..in so far as Japan is concerned by the
fact that Japan has suddenly ‘risen to the proportions of
3 first class power. '
Sir, everybody will concede that no event during the
last fifty years of the history of the human race has been
more remarkable than the sudden revolution which has
changed the institutions of Japan. Japan up to fifty years
ago was an isolated community; it has suddenly become
one of the world's greatest powers. When I say an iso-
lated community, I do not use the expression offensively;
but I want to draw attention to the marked difference
between oriental civilization and occidental civilization.
The nations of the orient have been, I might say for
countless ages, certainly for thousands of years, in a con-
dition of lethargic immobility. Today their civilization
is the same as it was two thousand years ago.
Their religious thought, their code of ethics, their meth-
ods of commerce‘, their modes of transportation, their sys-
tem of education-all these are the same as they were
two thousand years ago. While the nations of the west
have been in a constant state of transition and evolution,
always striving towards improvement and progress, the
nations of the east have been content to remain just
where they were, and the result has been that in almost
every walk of life they have been left steadily behind.
But all at once, without any transition, Japan has risen
from a condition of lethargy to a condition of actual activ-
ity and modern life. Japan has adopted our system of
education, our methods of trade and industry, and in the
art and science of war, both on land and sea, she has
shown herself the peer of the most famous nations of
the present day.
It is to the credit of Lord Lansdowne that, of all the
diplomatists of Europe, he was the first to recognize the
possibilities of this change in the condition of Japan.
Such was the importance that he attached, and rightly
attached, to this changed condition that he, all of a sud-
den, broke loose from all the traditions of British policy.
Hitherto it had been the rule and tradition of British
diplomacy that Britain would not become entangled in
any foreign alliance, that she would stand alone in her
insular position, and be ready in all circumstances to
take advantage of her opportunities without being shackled
by weighty alliances.
But Lord Lansdowne attached so much importance to the
new condition Japan had attained that in 1902 he did what
had not yet been done for us by any British statesman, and
concluded a treaty of alliance, defensive and o,0’en.ri1Je, between
Britain and Japan. What is the condition therefore which has
existed since 1902! It is that, under the treaty negotiated by
Lord Lansdowne, it "is possible, if unfortunately, the interest:
of Great Britain were to be jeopardized in the northern Pa-
cific Ocean, we might :92, should unfortunately war break
out, the fleet of Japan and the fleet of England riding the
wazler together for a common purpose and against a common
enemy. It is possible that, under that treaty, we may ree the
fleet of Japan weighing anchor in the harbor of,Vam-ouoer
for the protection of those British interest: to which Canada
attaches such vital importance.
The Natal Act Turned Down.
This is a condition which has escaped-altogether the
attention of my honorable friends opposite, but it is a
condition that we have had all the time before our eyes.
But though there may be treaties of defence, amity and
peace, though on this .occasion Japan and Great Britain
proclaimed to the world that they were friends'and pre-
pared to fight, if need be, a common enemy, it is not
to be expected that in the people, among all classes,