Branksome Hall - Slogan Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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THE BRANKSOME SLOGAN 19 This is not true of the Okanagan alone. In all the most fruitful districts in British Columbia you will find the quiet but rapid invasion of the Oriental going on, and the silent withdrawal of the wdiites. In California, in 1919, there was great consternation when it was discovered that every thirteenth person was a Japanese, and yet in British Columbia, one person in every eight is an Oriental ; but birth records show that the proportions betw een white and yellow are changing with alarming rapidity. Last June, in the municipality of Richmond, Vancouver, out of twelve births registered in one day, only one was that of a white child, — all the rest were yellow. It is a part of the Oriental religion to have large families. A Canadian family of five children is exceptional. This is an average Japanese family. The entire population of British Columbia is five hundred thous- and. In the year 1920, nine hundred and seventeen Oriental chil- dren were born there, and twelve hundred and seventy-five Oriental immigrants admitted. That is, over two thousand were added to the already large yellow population in one year. These Orientals can never be assimilated. The purity of our race, and the purity of their own, forbids intermarriage. Hence we are admitting in increasing numbers an alien race, which must ever remain alien, in thought, morals, religion, patriotism, and standards of living. They will soon dominate us by sheer weight of numbers, they will dictate to us, shoulder us aside, and we will i)ass from this fair land as surely as did the Indians before us. And yet Canadians continue to calmly ignore or quietly dismiss this question as of secondary importance. It is vital to the country. Every year is adding to the num1)er of these immigrants, and they are fast becoming a political, as well as an economic prol)lem. British Columbia is the gateway to the Orient. Let once that province become swamped with the yellow people, yearly pouring in, and the gates of the Dominion are opened to Oriental invasion. On the far side of the Pacific lies Japan, with the third largest navy in the world, with an army that is increasing daily, Japan, greedy for expansion for her teeming population; and on the other. British Columbia. Canada ' s w estern bulwark, with one-eighth of her population already composed of a people who still regard JaDan as their mother-land. Is not this food for earnest thought on the part of every serious- minded Canadian? MARJORIE SHERLOCK, Form V,

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18 THE BRANKSOMK SLOGAN In the main, it was coolie la1:»our, and the hfe of a cooHe was not highly valued in the 80 ' s. By premature explosions in the tunnels and cuttings, hy scourge and accident, many died, but finally the great highway connecting East and West was com])leted by Chinese labour. The Japanese came later, only some thirty years ago, but, since their coming, the whole salmon industry, on that most famous of salmon rivers, the Fraser, has passed into Oriental control. Not only there, but all along the coast, where there are good fishing- waters, the yellow tide is creeping in. The story of Steveston will illustrate the fate of many other fishing towns. Here, where former- ly hardy white and red fishermen harvested their profitable crop from the sea, now every fishing boat for miles along the coast is owned and manned by Orientals. In this connection it should be remembered that Canada has only a few hundred miles of sea-coast on the Pacific, that it is almost entirely in British Columbia, and that it is to the fishing poi)ulation there, as in the Eastern Maritime Provinces, that she will turn to find men for her navy, when the time comes that she needs one. With the rapidly growing importance of the Pacific in world afifairs, it is tragic to realize that the maritime population in British Colum- bia is almost entirely from across the Pacific. What may this not lead to in the event o f complications with the Orient ? The encroachments of the yellow man are not restricted to the fishing industry. To the traveller in British Columbia, the most vivid impression that he carries away w ith him is that of the number of extensive fruit farms that he passes as he travels westward. And here, in the fairest and most beautiful of all Canadian vales, the yellow man will be found in possession. As all instance of this, con- sider the Okanagan Valley. It is still a land of lovely homes, of people of culture and means, and above all of loyalty, often most difficult to secure in settlers, and most indispensable to any country. From this valley, more than one-sixth of the population went to the war. In their absence the labour problem became very serious, whole farms were left vacant, crops unharvested. In many cases the financial strain proved too heavy, and lands had to be sold. Then a danger which had long menaced became acute. The only available purchasers and labourers for hire, w ere Japanese and Chinese. A few years later the soldiers, who had given up all to fight for Canada, returned to find thousands of Orientals on the land. Their labourers, their neighbors, and, in many cases, their employers were yellow. And now we see the original settlers, who have so splendidly shown their loyalty to the country, quietly moving away, and leaving the land to the Orientals, settlers who w ork only to send their money out of the country, who live in hovels, who contribute nothing to the beauty, culture or strength of the country, and who will never be assimilated with the white people.

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20 TH l{ I ' RAN K SOM E SLCXiAN IN MEMORIAM— MARGARET TAYLOR SCOTT. The announcement of the death of Miss Marg-aret T. Scott, the beloved Founder, the first Principal, and later the Honorary Principal of Branksome Hall, which occurred after four months ' illness, on June 30th, 1921, at Vancouver. B.C., l rought a deep sense of personal loss to a large circle of old pupils and devoted friends. But to none did the news of the passing of Miss Scott l:)ring more regret than to the members, past and present, of the staff and Alumnae of Branksome Plall, who, through a long period of close association, were privileged to know her great worth as a loved teacher and friend. As an educationist. Miss Scott held a high place among Canadian teachers. During the course of her long and successful professional career, she was connected in her younger days for a short time with the Provincial Institute for the Blind, Brantford, and later became the Principal of Ottawa Ladies ' College. From Ottawa she moved to Toronto in the early eighties to assume the principalship of the Girls ' Model School, a position which she occupied for seventeen years. After a period of European travel. Miss Scott, in 190v3, in association with the late Miss Merrick, founded Branksome Hall, upon the site of the Sir Frank Smith estate, Bloor Street, East. From the first, the school had a marked success. The high regard in which Miss Scott was held as a leader and teacher, of winning personality and high purpose, attracted pupils at once from far and near, many of them daughters of former pupils, all of whom Miss Scott affectionately regarded as her children and grand- children. In the early days of the school, Miss Scott was ably supported by Miss Merrick, whose buoyant spirit and kindly sense of humor