As it was in most places in the world, racism along the West Coast of North America was relatively commonplace during the early 20th century. Even with this fact being evident, it was rapidly devolving from racist thoughts into racist violence. British Columbia’s first major instance of this occurred in Coal Harbor when rumor reached Vancouver that Chinese immigrants were invading the coast. While Oriental immigrants were usually forced home right from the dock, these 4 workers were brought into clear land in the outskirts of Vancouver with a police escort. This “invasion” was met by 300 white Canadians who marched out to Coal Harbor where the immigrants were staying and proceeded to throw the men out of their shacks, beat them repeatedly and burn their belongings. A pair was thrown into a nearby creek after being tied together before the mob retreated. 3 men were convicted and arrested however due to the sympathetic administration of Vancouver; the trio was released after a week in jail. The city officials of Victoria were enraged by the clear bias interfering with legal proceedings and as a response, Vancouver’s not even year-old city charter was suspended and 40 Victoria policemen stormed Vancouver City Hall to rearrest the trio.
The rapid increasing of Oriental immigration over the early 1900’s culminated in the various race riots, especially in Vancouver and Bellingham. The rather bluntly named Asiatic Exclusion League organized a march on September 7, 1907 in which they would protest into Vancouver’s Chinatown to show their disdain for the immigrants. Over 10,000 people attended the rally which rapidly devolved into a riot through the cities Chinese, Japanese and other immigrant communities. Windows of businesses and homes were smashed by rocks while people were attacked openly in the streets. Japanese residents fought back but the riots continued into the early morning of the next day. While nobody was killed, property damage for Asian immigrants and business owners in general were high, partially due to indiscriminate targeting of areas. These strained tensions were only somewhat subdued by reparations from the Canadian government for the damages, but the resulting legislation passed both provincially and federally to limited “unwanted immigration” only served to make the issue into a ticking time bomb.
Asian owned business heavily vandalized on Powell Street, Vancouver, BC.
The most relevant regulation was referred to as the continuous journey clause. This regulation was directly targeted at Indian natives who were immigrating into Canada. This regulation stipulated that any people who come from the country of their birth or citizenship must do so directly, meaning the ship must never put into a foreign port on the way. Due to the great distance from India to Canada and the nautical technology of the time, this made a one-way trip almost impossible or economically unpractical. This was brought to the attention of a man named Gurdit Singh Sandhu. A well-off contractor and fishermen in Singapore, Gurdit was an ardent supporter of the Indian independence Ghadar Movement and wished to challenge the Canadian immigration laws by sending through a passenger ship. After several months of searching for a suitable ship, he eventually hired the Komagata Maru, a Japanese owned tramp cargo ship. The Maru would work well for Gurdit’s plans as it was previously used to ferry immigrants all around the European continent. The makeup of the passengers themselves is rarely touched on as racism usually clouds period press documents. Almost all of the passengers were of the Indian countryside elite, being of sound financial background and looking to come into Canada to better themselves economically. Some of the passengers were former soldiers and policemen from various cities such as Singapore. Due to their lacking skills in the English language, many of these migrants wished to work lower stature labor positions in order to support their families and eventually return to India after a few years. Many of these men were married or had large families but choose to undertake the journey alone, mostly due to the increased wages even for menial tasks within Canada and the opportunities of opening businesses or investing in such ventures. Even with the relatively clean initial records of the passengers, a number of fellow Ghadar Movement supporters were working feverishly throughout the journey to bring their ideology to the passengers. Komagata Maru sailed from Hong Kong on April 4, 1914 after Gurdit was initially arrested for selling illegal tickets, the ship would later stop in Shanghai and various Japanese ports before making its way across the Pacific to Vancouver.
The 376 passengers of Komagata Maru arrived in Burrard Inlet on May 23, 1914. As was expected, the ship was not allowed to dock and was ordered to anchor 200 meters out into the harbor, away from the docks. While the Prime Minister and other Federal officials contemplated what to do with the vessel, Conservative MP H. H. Stevens and Chief Immigration Inspector Malcolm R. J. Reid were both in complete agreement that the passengers must be barred from entry by any means necessary. To this end, the pair of ranking officials made life aboard hellish. Komagata Maru lacked a desalination plant meaning that freshwater needed to be delivered aboard the ship, this combined with dwindling rations from the journey gave the men the pressure they required. Cutting off food, water and communications going to the ship intermittently (sometimes for up to 48 hours at a time), the officials attempted to break the will of the migrants. Facing this abuse, large portions of the passengers embraced the talks of the nationalist anti-British Indians or simply became fed up with this treatment and attempted to seize control of the ship. The Captain was deposed and the passengers took over the ship. Tensions were raised as the crew proclaimed they would not be leaving the harbor until they were allowed in the city. The city officials attempted to send police boarding parties to seize the ship and even a tugboat which was ordered to push the ship out to sea but when they both approached, they were repelled by a deluge of coal, bricks and other debris. Humorously, the passengers were driven off when a immigration officer hurled a cabbage from a provisions locker onto their deck, believing it to be a bomb. Premier McBride had enough of the situation and got permission from Ottawa to start deploying elements of the Military in case the situation escalated. Even though the Naval Service Act itself had no provisions in regard to assisting internal civilian incidents, the Premier contacted Commander Hose and requisitioned his help in the manner.
Rainbow was pulled away from her sealing patrol and was to arrive on the scene to intimidate the migrants into departing from the harbor, using reasonable force. Upon her arrival on July 21, she was placed in overall command of the Militia forces in the area alongside the Militia staff she brought herself. The imposing cruisers mere presence immediately began to pacify the situation. Even with this though, the key figures of the incident were gathered in Commander Hose's cabin to plan their contingency plan if all other options had failed. Hose had obviously been busy planning on the way from Esquimalt as he laid out an almost complete plan to all in attendance. Rainbow was to run alongside the Komagata Maru and set out 3 gangplanks, one on the stern, amidships and poop deck respectively. Each gangplank was assigned a pair of firehoses to clear the way if the ships Militia compliment was not allowed to board. The Militia detachment would storm the Maru with bayonets fixed and group by group, the passengers would be transferred to Rainbow to be taken shore. All parties in attendance agreed with this plan however, they wished to continue attempting diplomacy while the verdict from the counts was pending. Rumors still persist to this day that Commander Hose planned to ram the opposing ship or open fire if the Militia landings were opposed however, these are largely baseless claims from period newspapers.
Meanwhile, various groups of Indo-Canadians came together to attempt to resolve the situation. One of the more extreme groups met in Vancouver and agreed that if the passengers were not permitted entrance, they would charter a trip to India themselves in order to participate in a rebellion against the British. A British government agent who infiltrated the meeting wired government officials in London and Ottawa to tell them that supporters of the Ghadar Party were on the ship, further tainting the efforts of the groups. Working together, the parties managed to raise $22,000 as an installment for chartering the ship elsewhere in the event that the ship is wholly rejected. The lawyer J. Edward Bird took on a case against the BC government on the behalf of Munshi Singh, one of the passengers aboard. Bird unsuccessfully fought under the pretense that as Indians, the passengers were British subjects and therefore allowed to enter. In spite of his best efforts and valid points, Bird’s case was eventually dropped with the assigned Board of Inquiry sided with the BC Court of Appeals. It is valuable to note that the Board itself was incredibly unprofessional, being extremely slow with proceedings and documents to the point of dragging the investigation out needlessly.
Extremely well detailed display of HMCS Rainbow alongside Komagata Maru, showing the absolute bevy of smaller civilian craft crowding both ships. Open the image in another tab and zoom to see the detail.
In the end, Komagata Maru would depart Vancouver on July 23 and sailed towards Hong Kong. Commander Walter Hose was dismayed when he was instructed alongside MP Stevens and Inspector Reid to meet with the passengers and inform them of their departure. Another inspector spoke the letter to the leaders of the group which was as follows,
"I am instructed by the authority of the Government of Canada to say that much regret would be felt by this government should any injury be done to you and to urge you to peacefully submit to the laws of this country. Your case has been most exhaustively and ably argued in the Courts and the decision been given against you, and you have been lawfully ordered deported by the authorities; but in view of the particular circumstances of your case, the government have offered, as an act of grace, to supply you with provisions for your return voyage. This offer still holds good and I am instructed to assure you that all necessary provisions will be placed aboard immediately you restore command of the steamship Komagata Maru to her rightful Captain Yamamoto. I am further to say that the government regrets to note that you have been guilty of a very serious and grave offense against the laws of Canada. First in resisting the orders of the Immigration Control authority, secondly in taking away from the Captain control of his ship and by preventing him from getting up steam on his vessel. Thirdly, by violently resisting and obstructing the peace officers in the performance of their duties. The government regrets that unless you now submit, that it will be necessary to forthwith take steps to enforce the law."
From left to right, Inspector Reid, H.H. Stevens and Capt. Walter Hose speak to another government official aboard the HMCS Rainbow.
Rainbow escorted her from the harbor, through the straits of Juan de Fuca and into the Pacific Ocean before returning home to Esquimalt. It is unsure if Walter Hose ever knew that upon their return to India almost 20 of the men aboard would be gunned down by local police but as it turned out, he soon had much larger problems to worry about in the coming days.
The rapid increasing of Oriental immigration over the early 1900’s culminated in the various race riots, especially in Vancouver and Bellingham. The rather bluntly named Asiatic Exclusion League organized a march on September 7, 1907 in which they would protest into Vancouver’s Chinatown to show their disdain for the immigrants. Over 10,000 people attended the rally which rapidly devolved into a riot through the cities Chinese, Japanese and other immigrant communities. Windows of businesses and homes were smashed by rocks while people were attacked openly in the streets. Japanese residents fought back but the riots continued into the early morning of the next day. While nobody was killed, property damage for Asian immigrants and business owners in general were high, partially due to indiscriminate targeting of areas. These strained tensions were only somewhat subdued by reparations from the Canadian government for the damages, but the resulting legislation passed both provincially and federally to limited “unwanted immigration” only served to make the issue into a ticking time bomb.
Asian owned business heavily vandalized on Powell Street, Vancouver, BC.
The most relevant regulation was referred to as the continuous journey clause. This regulation was directly targeted at Indian natives who were immigrating into Canada. This regulation stipulated that any people who come from the country of their birth or citizenship must do so directly, meaning the ship must never put into a foreign port on the way. Due to the great distance from India to Canada and the nautical technology of the time, this made a one-way trip almost impossible or economically unpractical. This was brought to the attention of a man named Gurdit Singh Sandhu. A well-off contractor and fishermen in Singapore, Gurdit was an ardent supporter of the Indian independence Ghadar Movement and wished to challenge the Canadian immigration laws by sending through a passenger ship. After several months of searching for a suitable ship, he eventually hired the Komagata Maru, a Japanese owned tramp cargo ship. The Maru would work well for Gurdit’s plans as it was previously used to ferry immigrants all around the European continent. The makeup of the passengers themselves is rarely touched on as racism usually clouds period press documents. Almost all of the passengers were of the Indian countryside elite, being of sound financial background and looking to come into Canada to better themselves economically. Some of the passengers were former soldiers and policemen from various cities such as Singapore. Due to their lacking skills in the English language, many of these migrants wished to work lower stature labor positions in order to support their families and eventually return to India after a few years. Many of these men were married or had large families but choose to undertake the journey alone, mostly due to the increased wages even for menial tasks within Canada and the opportunities of opening businesses or investing in such ventures. Even with the relatively clean initial records of the passengers, a number of fellow Ghadar Movement supporters were working feverishly throughout the journey to bring their ideology to the passengers. Komagata Maru sailed from Hong Kong on April 4, 1914 after Gurdit was initially arrested for selling illegal tickets, the ship would later stop in Shanghai and various Japanese ports before making its way across the Pacific to Vancouver.
The 376 passengers of Komagata Maru arrived in Burrard Inlet on May 23, 1914. As was expected, the ship was not allowed to dock and was ordered to anchor 200 meters out into the harbor, away from the docks. While the Prime Minister and other Federal officials contemplated what to do with the vessel, Conservative MP H. H. Stevens and Chief Immigration Inspector Malcolm R. J. Reid were both in complete agreement that the passengers must be barred from entry by any means necessary. To this end, the pair of ranking officials made life aboard hellish. Komagata Maru lacked a desalination plant meaning that freshwater needed to be delivered aboard the ship, this combined with dwindling rations from the journey gave the men the pressure they required. Cutting off food, water and communications going to the ship intermittently (sometimes for up to 48 hours at a time), the officials attempted to break the will of the migrants. Facing this abuse, large portions of the passengers embraced the talks of the nationalist anti-British Indians or simply became fed up with this treatment and attempted to seize control of the ship. The Captain was deposed and the passengers took over the ship. Tensions were raised as the crew proclaimed they would not be leaving the harbor until they were allowed in the city. The city officials attempted to send police boarding parties to seize the ship and even a tugboat which was ordered to push the ship out to sea but when they both approached, they were repelled by a deluge of coal, bricks and other debris. Humorously, the passengers were driven off when a immigration officer hurled a cabbage from a provisions locker onto their deck, believing it to be a bomb. Premier McBride had enough of the situation and got permission from Ottawa to start deploying elements of the Military in case the situation escalated. Even though the Naval Service Act itself had no provisions in regard to assisting internal civilian incidents, the Premier contacted Commander Hose and requisitioned his help in the manner.
Rainbow was pulled away from her sealing patrol and was to arrive on the scene to intimidate the migrants into departing from the harbor, using reasonable force. Upon her arrival on July 21, she was placed in overall command of the Militia forces in the area alongside the Militia staff she brought herself. The imposing cruisers mere presence immediately began to pacify the situation. Even with this though, the key figures of the incident were gathered in Commander Hose's cabin to plan their contingency plan if all other options had failed. Hose had obviously been busy planning on the way from Esquimalt as he laid out an almost complete plan to all in attendance. Rainbow was to run alongside the Komagata Maru and set out 3 gangplanks, one on the stern, amidships and poop deck respectively. Each gangplank was assigned a pair of firehoses to clear the way if the ships Militia compliment was not allowed to board. The Militia detachment would storm the Maru with bayonets fixed and group by group, the passengers would be transferred to Rainbow to be taken shore. All parties in attendance agreed with this plan however, they wished to continue attempting diplomacy while the verdict from the counts was pending. Rumors still persist to this day that Commander Hose planned to ram the opposing ship or open fire if the Militia landings were opposed however, these are largely baseless claims from period newspapers.
Meanwhile, various groups of Indo-Canadians came together to attempt to resolve the situation. One of the more extreme groups met in Vancouver and agreed that if the passengers were not permitted entrance, they would charter a trip to India themselves in order to participate in a rebellion against the British. A British government agent who infiltrated the meeting wired government officials in London and Ottawa to tell them that supporters of the Ghadar Party were on the ship, further tainting the efforts of the groups. Working together, the parties managed to raise $22,000 as an installment for chartering the ship elsewhere in the event that the ship is wholly rejected. The lawyer J. Edward Bird took on a case against the BC government on the behalf of Munshi Singh, one of the passengers aboard. Bird unsuccessfully fought under the pretense that as Indians, the passengers were British subjects and therefore allowed to enter. In spite of his best efforts and valid points, Bird’s case was eventually dropped with the assigned Board of Inquiry sided with the BC Court of Appeals. It is valuable to note that the Board itself was incredibly unprofessional, being extremely slow with proceedings and documents to the point of dragging the investigation out needlessly.
Extremely well detailed display of HMCS Rainbow alongside Komagata Maru, showing the absolute bevy of smaller civilian craft crowding both ships. Open the image in another tab and zoom to see the detail.
In the end, Komagata Maru would depart Vancouver on July 23 and sailed towards Hong Kong. Commander Walter Hose was dismayed when he was instructed alongside MP Stevens and Inspector Reid to meet with the passengers and inform them of their departure. Another inspector spoke the letter to the leaders of the group which was as follows,
"I am instructed by the authority of the Government of Canada to say that much regret would be felt by this government should any injury be done to you and to urge you to peacefully submit to the laws of this country. Your case has been most exhaustively and ably argued in the Courts and the decision been given against you, and you have been lawfully ordered deported by the authorities; but in view of the particular circumstances of your case, the government have offered, as an act of grace, to supply you with provisions for your return voyage. This offer still holds good and I am instructed to assure you that all necessary provisions will be placed aboard immediately you restore command of the steamship Komagata Maru to her rightful Captain Yamamoto. I am further to say that the government regrets to note that you have been guilty of a very serious and grave offense against the laws of Canada. First in resisting the orders of the Immigration Control authority, secondly in taking away from the Captain control of his ship and by preventing him from getting up steam on his vessel. Thirdly, by violently resisting and obstructing the peace officers in the performance of their duties. The government regrets that unless you now submit, that it will be necessary to forthwith take steps to enforce the law."
From left to right, Inspector Reid, H.H. Stevens and Capt. Walter Hose speak to another government official aboard the HMCS Rainbow.
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