AUSTRALIA'S YELLOW PERIL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 86, 4 January 1908, Page 14

AUSTRALIA'S YELLOW PERIL.

—t r — 'ME' SUPPOSED SKCRKT CHINESE \ COLONY. In the course of an article 011 "Tho Real -Yellow'--Peril,"- . which - appears ovor the signature Hugh H. -Lusit; lii the November number of the "North Amorican Ueview, some extravagant assertions aro made regarding the influx of Asiatics into .the Northern Torritory. In tho course of his article, Mr. Lusk : writes■ • "Some years >ago, j tho great territory knowa as the Northern Territory of South Australia, was formally surrendered by the State Parliament to the Federal Government of;the Commonwealth, and accepted by the Federal Parliament on: tlio ground that it was practically impossible for the State Government to deal with it. "From time to timo reports have reached tho southern settlements that coasting .vessels havo found Chinamen digging or prospecting for gold, during the last 10 or 12 .years, and of lato "these have becomo increasingly, numerous, and havo 'in somo instances taken tho form of reports of regular and apparently . permanent settlements. One such report which reached the authorities' nearly two years ago was to the;; effect that. ,ono settlement of; this kind was' employed in ' the cultivation of opium on a considerable scale, and that, unlike the former experience of Australia, tho population 'Wa3 -not confined' to' men, ..but included'women and _ children. Theso peoplo had no communication with tho European settlements, but it was evident that they .had, frequent communication by direct trading' vessels with Southern China. , "Almost directly to tho nprth —with 'nothing between but tho islands of Borneo ■and Celebes—at. a .distance of_ 1800 miles, ' lies' the' continental .Mongolian country, overcrowded almost<■ to !■ tho utmost point' of'• ciidiirahcoto tho south, tho unoccupied coast of a- continent, stretching ,2100 miles from east to west, offering freedom, 1 woll.being, and.conditions ( of..untrammelled pros\perity such as the race' has nover known m 2000. - years. , Tho .Government of the Commonwealth is aware of the danger, but it is placed in a position of unusual difficulty by its dependence on the Labour party for its very existence, and party is bitterly opposed - to" .tho; introduction of such peoplo as Italians, Spaniards, or any, other inhabitants of Southern Europo, who, while they might for tho present occupy the northern coast, and so aid in the exclusion' of Asiatics, might in tho, end create a cheap labour element in the country. Many- suggflstions have been 1 made, but so far nothing has boon ' done. Meanwhile, •the-:, danger- presses,' and will continue to ' press with ever-increasing severity. Southwestern Amcrica, perhaps oven Mexico, may be exposed to the serious danger of this Asiatic invasion within a few years; but Northorn Australia is at once the nearest and the most ' spairsoly populated of all the countries where an early conflict of the Mongolian and Caucasian civilzations is to bo feared and guarded against."