[?]Onolulu

To-Day

[?]ossed Strains At The Pacific Cross-Roads

[Ck Survey By Eric Ramsden

Honolulu, Feb. 6.

was talking so fast with her coloured girl friend, gesticulating with hands and :h, that she did not notice our iroach. My companions were i Honolulu detectives, and a bation official. With the ex tion of the latter, Sable ignored all. sfou ain’t got nuthin’ on me!” screamed. “I ain’t ‘hustlin’ no . I doan’ steal even one dime, i ain’t got a thing on me!” arely pausing for breath, she tinued: “It’s jes’ too bad, it is. e I come out for breath of air b time in weeks. And first man trike has to be you. If I ain’t mos’ dog-gone unluckiest gal. you ain’t got nuthin’ on me, iuse I ain’t don’ nuthin’. See!” natty little figure in a scarlet ikey-coat, with jockey cap to :ch, the headgear thrust well k on her head, Sable looks con irably less than 50 or so imers the majority of which e not been spent in the South s. Of creamy complexion, with cing dark eyes, she is a product Honolulu’s negro invasion, ntil the recent war there were iparatively few negroes in yaii. Now Honolulu has its tck belt”. espite protestations of inno se, Sable has a police record t occupies at least four type ten pages. “Single space, too!” arked one of the detectives, orious as one of the most ex - pickpockets ever x in the Terri r, and though on probation, she other charges hanging over her d. Sable, however, knows every ►hole in the legal system . . . he “high yaller” ladies one sees street corners, who invite sailor

boys to be “rocked to sleep” for a' consideration, also came in follow ing the war. And there are numerous woolly-headed young sters playing about the Smith Street neighbourhood who will, doubtless, in time, contribute their quota to the miscegination that makes Hawaii the most interesting human laboratory in the world.

TO the casual visitor, Honolulu, with its Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos. Portuguese, Porto Ricans, and the admixtures of all those races with the Polynesian - Nordic stock, may appear the same. But a stroll round the back streets at night brings the realisation that the city is undergoing still another racial change.

While there is no colour dis crimination in the Hawaiian Islands, there is" resentment against this latest influx —just as there is in those American cities to which the negroes flocked dur ing and after the war years. The young negro who has drifted into Honolulu of late has no particular desire either to toil or spin. If he can make a living through the sale of narcotics, or some other devious means, then it is alright with him.

It is becoming increasingly diffi cult nowadays to find a pure blood Hawaiian. The Hawaiians, numbering fewer than 13,000, com prise about 3 per cent, of the total population of something like half a million people in the Territory.

Part Hawaiians, of whom there are about 80,000. make up about 16 per cent.

The Japanese form the largest single group.

Numbering about 190,000, or nearly 40 per cent, of the total population, they are increasing rapidly. Within half a century, Hawaii will be in the hands of native-born Japanese.

What the Japanese could not obtain by war, they will achieve by peace ful means. That is why the re sponsible section of Americans in these islands object to statehood:

only too well do they realise that, given statehood, political power will be in the hands of the Japanese.

During the early part of the war there was. naturally, much ill

feeling against the Japanese, the bulk of whom were Hawaiian-born.

But, when given the opportunity to serve Uncle Sam, the Niseis did so with such distinction that there was no doubting their loyalty.

These Hawaiian-born Japanese re turned covered with glory.

Time has shown, nevertheless that such honours went to th heads of many of these young mer Since the war many have prove; exceedingly troublesome to th police. Investigators believe tha the Niseis are now contributin more than their fair share, i: Honolulu particularly, to crime Nisei thieves usually work alone and that makes them difficult a times to detect.

“It will take another two gene rations at least before these Nisei are really Americans, and ready fo statehood,’' said an old resident c the Territory. On the other hanc there is a strong element amon the Japanese to whom the defea of their mother-land in the wai will be a life-long lesson: the have no desire to be other tha: quiet, industrious American citi zens.

There have been several de velopments since the war that ar of interest. Previously, much c the Japanese wealth went fror Hawaii to Japan. Now that mone is being spent in the Territory where the locally-born Japanes have vast commercial interest* There has also been a considerabl raising of Nisei living standard; The present generation no longe stint and save as did their father and grandfathers. There is n gadget that the average America]

joys here to-day that the erage Japanese does not possess.

Also, there was a time when panese girl babies were at a scount in Hawaii. Always alive the value of education, these panese are now occupying secre rial and other equally well-paid nations. It is becoming in sasingly difficult to obtain panese (or any other for that itter) house servants, and those 10 do render such domestic •vice are highly paid. As else tere, the industrial enterprises roughout this Territory offer re merative inducements for labour, lich is extremely well organised, llions of dollars have been lost these Islands in recent years rough strikes. rhen there is still another de lopment, which suggests a ange in outlook. Once the panese in these Islands married ly among themselves. Japanese •Is are now marrying Americans d other Europeans. There is also idence that for the first time in iwaiian history the Japanese are :er-marrying with Chinese. The iter now number some 31,000, (or out 7 per cent, of the total pulation).

'JDEED, there has been such an intermingling of bloods at this cross-roads of the Pacific at it is difficult to detect racial •ains.

An excellent observation post is one of the dance halls to which 7 friends, the detectives, took ?. Pointing to one particularly tractive girl who was dancing th a Porto Rican labourer, one the police asked: ‘ What do you ink she is?”

She appeared to be a European, so happened that this girl was iown to the police, because she d been the complainant in a pe charge. In the main her •ain was Portuguese; but she also d an admixture of Hawaiian, iglish, and Chinese.

An indication of the change that taking place was obtained dur g a visit to the island of Hawaii. descent from the main road ought one to Honaunau, a lovely ot on the coast once known as be City of Refuge.” There, in cient times, any Hawaiian trans essor could claim sanctuary. The i heiau, or sacred place, it still a remarkable state of preser tion. The collecting of stones Dm near and far must have in- Ived enormous labour. Inherited Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, is owned by the trustees of the shop Estate, though there is now move to make the site a national Dnument.

A group of young Hawaiians ider the palms were strumming eleles and dancing. But instead

of a lively hula, the couples were prancing through the steps of an American square dance! In a pool nearby—a hollow formed in past centuries by a lava flow—Hawaiian children were bathing—as naked as ever had been their ancestors. A strange world, this modern Hawaii.

Changeless in some aspects, yet ever changing.

Miss Margaret Sanders, daughter of Mrs. W. H. Sanders of Norfolk Island and Mr. Sanders of Borneo, was married on February 28, to Chief Officer Helgie Persson, of Nor way. A reception was held, after the wedding, on Mr. Persson’s ship, M. V. Citos.

Mr. W. H. Cumines, who is well known in the Central and Western Pacific in connection with his visits as a commercial traveller during the past 10 years, has joined the staff of Robert Gillespie Pty., Ltd., Islands agents and manufacturers’ representative in Sydney.