Sampans Seized

In the Hawaiian Islands, "sampan" does not mean what Noah Webster says it does. In Hawaii, it means a boat owned by an Oriental. Residents of Honolulu, now queasy over the Japanese crisis in the far Pacific, regard the islands' chief sampan nest at the fisherman's wharf, a few miles from the Navy's base at Pearl Harbor, as nothing more than a nest of Japanese spies. Army and Navy men think so too. Many a destroyer commander on patrol before Pearl Harbor has stopped a fancy, high-powered motorboat inside the restricted zone, has had bland apologies from its Japanese crew. But none has failed to notice that the boat's brightwork was gleaming, that the three or four men aboard looked uncommon bright and neat for fishermen, had binoculars handy. Thickening the mystery was the fact that many of these fishing craft were owned by Orientals who were actually clerks, laborers and housewives.

Honolulu citizens have long declared that something ought to be done. Last week something was. At the fisherman's wharf, U. S. customs officers seized ten alien-owned fishing craft, announced that they would grab 70 more when they got in from sea. Reason: fraudulent registration.

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