text: Although officials claimed these measures were required due to war, fishing for salmon was a hotly contested issue between the white Canadians and Japanese Canadians. In 1919, Japanese Canadians received four thousand and six hundred of the salmon-gill net licences, representing roughly half of all of the licences the government had to distribute. In a very public move on behalf of the Department of Fisheries in British Columbia, it was recommended that in the future Japanese Canadians should never again receive more fishing licences than they had in 1919 and also that every year thereafter that number be reduced. These were measures taken on behalf of the provincial government to oust the Japanese from salmon fishing. The federal government also got involved in 1926, when the House of Commons' Standing Committee on Fisheries put forward suggestions that the number of fishing licences issued to Japanese Canadians be reduced by ten percent a year, until they were entirely removed from the industry by 1937. Yet, the reason the government gave for impounding the few remaining and operating Japanese-Canadian fishing boats was that the government feared these boats would be used by Japan to mount a coastal attack on British Columbia.
  Many boats belonging to Japanese Canadians were damaged, and over one hundred sank.
  State management of Japanese-Canadian property
  During the process of internment, federal officials told Japanese Canadians that their property would be held as a "protective measure" only and then returned to its owners. However, as early as April 1942, as Japanese Canadians were being actively interned, Ian Alistair Mackenzie began planning with Thomas Crerar and Gordan Murchison for the use of Japanese Canadian land for veteran settlement under the upcoming Veteran's Land Act program. Property appraisal was undertaken by the Soldier Settlement Board which valued the farms at less than half their actual market values. Order 5523 passed in June 1942 threatened jail time and $1000 fine for individuals attempting to make private arrangements for their farms.