5 OCTOBER 1907, Page 18

The Times of Monday prints from its special correspondent a

most interesting analysis of the situations in Newfoundland and British Columbia. Sir Robert Bond's Ministry, having removed the restrictions on the sale of fish to Americans, seems to have suffered seriously in prestige, though the surrender is none the less welcome in the cause of peace. At Bay of Islands, which is the centre of the herring fishery, the correspondent was told that " no further trouble would occur unless the politicians created it,"—a conclusion to which, we confess, we had already almost come ourselves. In Canada the Anti-Asiatic League is very active, and Ministers receive telegrams to which definite answers are peremptorily demanded. Sir W. Laurier himself received the following telegram last week :—" The League endorses the exclusion of Japanese not transported specifically to Canada, and, the existing limitation having been exceeded, demands exclusion this year. It believes that the question has been investigated, and that all the Government needs to do is to act. It demands exclusion, not limitation or legislation." But the League does not represent unanimous opinion. The Times corre- spondent quotes the opinion of an intelligent resident in Van- couver, who describes the anti-Japanese agitation as a problem in labour. The price of white labour is artificially high, and British Columbia cannot be developed with the small amount of labour which can be bought at that price. Yet white labourers resist the admission of all competition, even though they might gain in the long run by the general advance in prosperity.