SIXTEEN

M8NlREAi GIRL LEADSDUMINIUN N B_E§l_§EilER3

Born in Canada of Chinese Mother Has Been Writ- ing of Japan

TO WRITE OF CITY

Plans to Write Scenario of Older Part of City———- Visiting Here

“Onata Watanna" or Mrs. Francis F. Reeve, a Canadian author whose Japanese stories are known on both sides of the Atlantic and whose books are reputed to have the largest select any native-born author in the Domin- ion has arrived in Montreal.

As a child she played in the streets of Hochelaga and was called with her brothers and sisters "Chinois" by the children of the neighborhood,‘ for her father was English, an Oxford gradu- ate, and her mother, a Chinese medical missionary.

Now she has numerous short stories to her credit, several scenarios and six- teen novels, the latest of which “Sun- ny San” was published simultaneously in New York and London. It is being dramatised by Cosmo Hamilton and is to be filmed at Hollywood.

The story of W'inifred Eaton. under which -name she will be remembered by many Montrealers, reads somewhajt: like one of her own romances, Her father, the .late Edward Eaton, son of a wealthy silk manufacturer of Mac- clesfield, England. went often with his two brothers to China and Japan on matters connected with the industry. He married a Chinese missionary who, as a. child of three, had been adopted by Sir Hugh and Lady Matheson and trained as a missionary to her own people. His brothers marrled Japanese women.

Later he went to the United States. where he lost his money in Wall street. He then settled in Canada where he lived until his death. He had some repute as a. painter and some of his works were purchased by Lord Strathcona and the Duke oi.’ Argyll. HER FIRST STORY.

Winifred’s literary tastes developed early. When only fifteen years old her Fiv * *1 ry, an ambitious two-part

' ‘ ed in a Montreal acted

next, I

1 , ‘\V and announces ‘her intention of writing ‘' entirely in the future of things Canad- 3 ian. The VVest where she now has her home and the East where her child- hood was spent appeal equally to her, the whole Dominion to her mind rep- resenting a mine of literary ma.terial._

She has completed three stories oi \Vcstern Canada which she states will run serially and are also beinir adapted for the legitimate stage and for the moving picture theatres. She is work- ing on two additional stories. the scenes of which are laid in Old Mont- real. To get local color for these she is going to St_ Hilaire to the old de Rouville Seigneury.

Mrs. Reeve resents the conception of Canada represented in KipIing's "Our Lady of the Snows." Constantly in the United States she heard the Dominion referred to as a land of ice and snow and she thinks that Canad- ians are too lax in permitting such criticism to gain ground. like nothing better,” shesaid, “than to give the world a photographic pic- ture of this great land, with its vast mineral wealth, its great grain fields and glorious sunshine. Canada. rep- resents a mine of dramatic and liter- ary material as yet practically un- touched, and has yet to be properly presented to the world. The story oi‘ each province has yet to be written."

JAPANESE PROBLEM.

By reason of her opportunities for insight into Eastern psychology and her residence for some years in th( Vvcst, Mrs. Reeve is profoundly inter- ested in the Japanese problem in West- ern Canada and the whole so—ca.lled Yellow Peril. All .-talk of the Japanese menace in the West she considers harmful and mischievous.

“The best thing the white races can do is to cultivate the friendship of the yellow people,” she says. “It is to their interest that all nations should live together in friendship and the world must get over the delusion that the white races must keep back the others.”

The Chinese, she said, are a peace- ful people and would never go to war unless goaded into it. They had been taken advantage of by reason of this trait throughout their history and they needed a Moses to lead them,

Japan had a war history but an hon- orable record in its dealings with other nations. She was a. vain nation and the habit of square dealing might arise in part from a desire to stand well in the eyes of the world. However, be the reasons diplomatic or otherwise Japan would be true to her obligations and it was better rto cultivate her friendship than her enmity.

In addition to her l'itera.ry work, Mrs. Reeve is familiar with all aspects of ranch life from malclng butter to putting down pork. She spends much of her time in the saddle and is en-

thusiastic on the subject of the de- '

velopment of Vvestern Canada. She is sister of Mrs. de Rouville in this city and of Mrs. Galloway, vfife of the assistant to the president of the Grand Trunk Railway.

‘ ‘I would ‘