or set up little shops. They now had most of the retail business of
the island, and all of it outside Papeete.

The secretary-general gave me figures about them.

"There are twenty-two hundred Chinese in Tahiti now," said he. "We
are willing to receive all who come. They are needed to restore the
population. Who would keep the stores or grow vegetables if we did
not have the Chinese? We exact no entrance fee, but we number every
man, and photograph him, to keep a record. There is no government
agent in China to further this emigration, but those here write home,
and induce their relatives to come. We hope for enough to make labor
plentiful. All cannot keep stores."

"Have you no Japanese?"

"Only those who work for the phosphate company at the island of
Makatea," replied the secretary-general. "They are well paid, their
fare to Tahiti and return secured, and otherwise they are favored. The
Government has agreed with a company to promote Chinese emigration to
the Marquesas. There are thousands needed. In French Oceanie there
are twelve thousand possible workers for nearly a million acres of
land. This land could easily feed two hundred thousand people. The
natives are dying fast, and we must replace them, or the land will
become jungle."

"Couldn't you bring French Chinese from Indo-China?" I asked.

"We haven't any workers to spare there," he answered.