Halford Wilson Correspondence 1940 - 2

From this file, LOI has digitized one textual record or image.

This file contains correspondence between Halford Wilson and other official and British Columbians concerning the “Oriental question.” Documents: Wilson to M.J. Coldwell on the “alienation to the Japanese of some natural resources of B.C.”; a letter from a citizen sharing his “three pet racial hates” as “Japs Germans and Jews”; a memo from the British Canadian Allied Club urging department stores to “quit buying from Japanese firms”; a letter from the White Canada Research Committee suggesting the abrogation of metal exports from Canada to “put a crimp in the Japanese operations”; a couple letters requesting ordinances preventing Japanese-Canadians residing in stores on Cambie Street (29 August 1940); multiple letters from Halford Wilson to Vancouver Finance Committee expressing concern over proposed federal policy to admit Japanese-Canadians into the military; a letter suggesting a city-wide boycott of Japanese-Canadian owned businesses; a letter from Wilson to an American company requesting that they stop hiring Japanese-Canadian workers at their Ocean Falls plant; and a letter from F.J. Mead to Wilson explaining his attempts to prevent violence towards Japanese-Canadians in order to avoid giving “the Japanese Government the excuse to wreck a terrible vengeance on all British Subjects living in Japanese controlled areas in the Far East.” Most letters are in support of Wilson’s “fine stand” against Oriental “penetration.” File also contains newspaper clippings (local as well as the “London Free Press”) relevant to the subject. Wilson also received updates on Japan from a friend working in Taihoku, Formosa.

Wilson, Halford David, 1904-1988 created this archive during his time as a Vancouver politician.

The digital copies of the records were acquired by the Landscapes of Injustice Research Collective between 2014 and 2018.

This record was digitized in full.