MARRIAGE WAS WRONG SAYS MATTHEWS

Pastor of First Presbyterian Church Declares Wedding of Miss Emery and Japanese Should Have Been Stopped.

MRS. ELIZA FERRY LEARY HAS SIMILAR OPINION

Daughter of First Governor of Washington and Prominent Church Member Not in Favor of Such Unions.

That ceremony uniting the white girl, Helen Gladys Emery, to the Japanese Aoki, should never have been performed. There should have been some way of preventing it. I cannot understand why the father of the girl did not exercise his God-given right as head of the family to prevent that unfortunate union."

This in substance is what Rev. M.A. Matthews, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, had to say last night when asked as to his opinion of the celebrated Aoki-Emery love affair which has interested the whole country during the past ten days, and which culminated yesterday in the marriage of the daughter of an archdeacon of the Episcopal Church to a former house servant in the Emery family who is a full-blooded Japanese.

"My belief is that no Anglo-Saxon girl should be allowed to wed a man of an alien race nor am I in favor of any marriage between the whites and those of different races," said Dr. Matthews. "There should be a law against it. The girls of white blood in this country do not have to go to the Orientals for their husbands. There are plenty of men of marriageable age and fitness among the American youth of this country.

"I have no desire to pass judgment on any of the parties, but had they appealed to me to marry them. I most certainly would have refused to perform the ceremony."

Mrs. Eliza Ferry Leary, prominent in the Daughters of the American Revolution, and a leading member of Trinity Church where the ceremony was performed, severely condemned the marriage of American white girls with Japanese.

"I do not approve of the marriage of Miss Emery and the Japanese Aoki," said Mrs. Leary, who is a daughter of the late Gov. Elisha P. Ferry, the first chief executive of the state of Washington. Continuing she said:

"I would not be a fit member of the Daughters of the American Revolution nor the daughter of my own father if I did not condemn such marriages."