Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-18

Offering to loan able-bodied coolies this
sum-at an appropriately high rate Of
interest. The risk attached to such
loan was small, owing to the industry
of the average coolie and his high sense
Of honor where a debt was concerned.
Chinese immigration suddenly took an
upward squirt. Canada became alarmed.
In 1913 an exclusion act was passed
and the pilgrim was forced to take up
his restless flight.
At first Australia also was loath to
bar the Chinese. AS in California, It
was the lure of gold dug out Of the
earth that brought the Celestials to
the Antipodes. But later barriers were
set up. In addition to $500 head tax,
the Australians refused to allow the
Chinese in their mines. The denial OF
this opportunity acted as greater de-
terrent than the tax. Immigration
dwindled. In 1920 the Celestial popu-
lation in all Australasia, including half
castles, was barely 10000.
Lords in Burma.
One section of the British Empire,
however, has always been open to the
Chinese pilgrim. In Burma and in the
Federated Malay States we find the &C.
lestials firmly ensconced and-aS might
be expected-doing very we'll for them
selves. BY their frugality, industry and
their adaptability to the tropics they
have become lords Of all they survey.
Leaving the onerous tasks of govern
ment to the British, the Celestials have
been content to command the agricul-
ture, manufacture, commerce and
banking of these lands. A large per-
centage Of the Rangoon and Singapore
Chinese are wealthy. Many Of them
are fabulously so.
The Chinese have gone into the tin
mines, living in q heat so intense
that 1t battles description; they have
planted great tracts Of rubber trees
for the British, working under q blazing
sun. AS in Hawaii, they have per-
formed the labor that the native Malays
were unwilling to do.
Yet, in this one spot, where the
Chinese have not been chevied from
pillar to post, they today are reward
ing their rulers by promoting trouble
In Malaysia the legend Of the meek
colonist falls to earth. Among the
lower ranks Of the Celestials syndi-
calism has raised its hydra head
Labor guilds, acting with the secrecy
and cruelty Of the mania, are ter
rorizing British and Chinese manufac-
turers alike. Cheap Chinese labor" is
no longer cheap. Nor is 1t reliable. At
the seaports the foreign housewife lives
|
together in an active and powerful
guild. In Singapore, in Penang, in
Rangoon, strange dramas are played.
Evidence of sabotage come to light
daily-Sabotage often inflicted without
warning. Rubber trees are gashed, fac
tories are burned. Here and there an
English or Chinese plantation owner
disappears. never to return..or per-
haps, days later, to be found with q
Ratchet securely buried in his skull.
Thwarted at Every Turn.
The Chinese in Malaysia have always
been liberal in thought. 1t was in a
large measure their money which
| financed DR.. Sun Yat-sen, bringing
about the present Chinese Republic.
Yet 1t Is trifle bewildering that the
Chinese. so inheren0y tenacious of
their property rights, should in Ma
laysia now be suffering from the virus
Of that radicalism which seeks TO de-
stroy all personal right to land and
money.
The adventures Of the Chinese pill
grims in Latin America are dominated
by one theme, the coolie ship.
| Loaded to the last possible inch,
sometimes insufficiently stocked with
food and, worst still, with a scarcity
Of water, they were floating charnel
houses. Epidemics repeatedly swept
them At times they sailed into South
American ports with but a few gaunt
coolies remaining from the hundreds
who had taken passage at Canton.
Yet 1t is a brave record that the
Chinese pilgrim has made for him.
self. a struggle against heavy odds,
against prejudice and against passion.
And, ironically, he has been thwarted
at every turn. Even in Mexico, the
friendly, today the barriers have risen.
In Manchuria he faces a wall Of jap
anese bayonets
Is the restless Chinese pilgrim-like
the wandering Jew-never to be al
lowed a resting place?