Japanese cruiser at Victoria, British Columbia, 1909.
This Japanese cruiser, the Soya, once flew the Russian flag, but was captured and refitted by the Japanese navy after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. The Soya reminded British Columbians of Japan's rising military strength, a complement of her rising industrial capacity. Earlier, after Japan had defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, the British government had sought a treaty of alliance with the Japanese empire. When the treaty was signed in 1902, Canada remained a non-signatory, but used the treaty as a pretext for vetoing discriminatory provincial legislation against Japanese nationals in British Columbia. After 1905, when Canada too signed the treaty, Sir Wilfrid Laurier revealed that not imperial but Canadian interests lay behind his stand. Laurier dreamed of mounting a Canadian effort to capture a large section of the Japanese market for Canadian products.
