With some 50 firms im British Columbia employing between 3,000 and 4,000 Orientals, it is only natural that a Privy Council decision permitting provincial government restriction Of their employment in the lumber business, under the penalty of withdrawal of licences, should fall like a bombshell on the trade. At present the bulk of the Oriental labour is being used on Jand unsuitable for logging and used only to get out shingles, accarding to Mr. N. R. Whittalll, a prominent Iumberman, who said that if the Government insists on acting on the Privy Council decision these timber berths would simply, be abandoned by operating them with Oriental labour. Mr. Whittall, whose firm it was that took the case agains: jhe British Columbia Government's proposal to the highest court in the (Empire, said the proposed restrictions would cause serious injury to the industry, as it was extremely difficult and often impossible to get white men to undertake the labourious work Orientals could do. Gaining a foothold during the w: when the lumber business booming and when labour generally was scarce, Japanese and Chinese labour practically monopolizes certain grades of work at pulp, shingle and sawmills. Forestry department figures for 1921 showed 3,376 Chinese and 1,543] by Japanese' employed in various branches of the forest industries in Bhitish Columbia. To mike the problem more complex it is known that there are Oriental, holding crown grants of timber lands.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.