1912] Truth about Magdalena Bay 



the Magdalena Japanese have modern rifles, he is com- 

 pelled to buy broomsticks for the use of boys drilled by 

 him. He closes with the remark, " In view of all this. War 

 how can any one fail to realize the importance of ^"'^".'^'"^ 

 Congress passing the Chamberlain Bill without X™^"^ 

 emasculation?" 



The modest shipbuilder referred to above further 

 explained to one of my own correspondents "in the 

 most emphatic way that, in company with a retired 

 naval officer, he saw a considerable number of Japan- 

 ese, he thought between three and four thousand, 

 training. They were armed and had, he believed, 

 Krag-Jorgensen guns. They plied the trade of fishing 

 in the morning and did this drilling in the afternoon. " 

 He also added that he had "never seen finer drilling 

 anywhere. " 



Wishing to get at whatever truth lay behind these 

 assertions, I wrote to Esteban Cantu, then governor of 

 Lower California. From Ensefiada, May 21, 1917, 

 Cantu assured me "that the majority of the fisher- 

 men who operate in Magdalena Bay have their 

 homes in San Diego, California." 



Mr. Sandoval wrote from Los Angeles on the 5th Sandmai's 

 of the same month: staumem 



[I] gave up canning in Magdalena Bay when the Revolution 

 started, as under those conditions it is not possible to run 

 anything on business bases, but taking advantage of these 

 unsettled conditions, some American capitalists under arrange- 

 ments with the revolutionary leaders who have dispossessed 

 me of my rights have started a floating cannery in Magdalena 

 Bay with about ten fishing boats manned by Japanese fisher- 

 men, which might be fifty in all. . . . Surely the shipbuilder 

 who made the assertion that he saw thousands of Japanese 

 fishing in the morning and drilling in the afternoon must have 

 been drinking something very injurious and should be taken to 



n 411 3 



