January The Privy Council ruled invalid provincial laws regulating the marketing of tree fruits and vegetables that had the effect (intended) of stifling Chinese farmers. Ladner farmers Chung Chuck and Mah Lai had appealed to the Supreme Court.

January 5 Railway executive and former alderman William Ferriman Salsbury died in Victoria. Salsbury came to Canada from Surrey, England in 1870. He was a manager of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada until 1881, when he joined the CPR. He arrived locally on July 4, 1886, aboard the first train to Port Moody. He was, for 35 years (1886-1921) treasurer of the CPR’s Pacific Division….

January 11 B.C.’s Premier Pattullo, in Ottawa, told the federal government B.C. wouldn’t object to the “infiltration” of a small number of European refugees into Canada “if they can be readily absorbed.”He is, said the Sun, definitely opposed to any large movement.

January 2 The first contingent of the Canadian Active Service Force left for Europe. The second contingent will leave January 2, 1940. No indication of where they left from was published at the time.

The 1941 census showed the Metropolitan Vancouver population had increased to more than 400,000, with about 70 per cent of us in Vancouver City itself.