NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 158, 29 March 1919, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

•The statesmen, of Japan hayo never lacked astuteness, and by raising the question of racial equality in conneetion with the draft scheme for the League of Nations they are playing their own game cleverly enough. They know that the League of Nations will .be a mere alliance, of certain Great Powers if.Japan stands outside. They know also that the democratic principles mid clown by Allied statesmen are inconsistent with a denial of the equality of man. They are -aware that vho statesmen of Britain, France, and the United States would find.it very difficult to justify, in so many words, any broad discrimination on grounds of nationality. _ They anticipate the real point at issue by saying that if their demand_ for recognition of racial equality is conceded they will themselves undertake, the restriction of Japanese emigration to countries' that are not willing to receive immigrants from the .iiast. The Japanese peace dclesra.tcs. yi fact, occupy a position that is strategically strong, and it will l.e surprising if they do not succeed, in gaining some substantial concession in the way of.diplomatic recognition of their nation's status. The concession will be distasteful to the peoples of Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, lnrt it appears'to be unavoidable. The Japanese are a strong and intelligent nation, ancl/wc have accepted their assistance in time of war. They have an ancient andin many respects admirable civilisation. Thev are able, patriotic, and efficient. Britons and Americans put theniselves in the wrong if. they claim '■hat the Japanese are their inferiors, since the Japanese arc in a position to prove, that in many spheres of life this is not the case. The crux of the oucstion really is not equality at all _ Anglo-Saxon communities can admit the equality of the Japanese and can still obpet to receiving Japanese immigrants, for the simple reason that the nra from the East cannot be absorbed as units of our democracies. They are aliens. Their ways arc not our ways; then 'tend inevitably to form groups of their own in a white man's country, and their presence nroduces industrial and social problems that, in this age at any rate, are incapable of comfortable solution. The issue that has been raised by the Japanese delegates concerns primarily the United States :ind Australia, since these are the AngloSaxon countries in which Japaneseimmigration is. a tpicstion of fact and not of theory, and it is not surprising to find Mr.' Hughes bluntly refusing to accept any expression in the covenant of the League against "racial discrimination."' Probably he would refuse also to accept a formal recognition of "racial equality." But the real need at the moment seems to bo a formula that will ponvev acknowledgment of equality in principle without weakening the right of _ any nation to guard its own purity of blood and political system in practice. Such a formula will not solve the race problem, but it, will provide a working basis for future discussion and agreement. « V -5 * ■ • The steps taken by the United States Government to stamp out Bolshevik activities in America have led to.some interesting revelations. The inquiries of the Committee of Investigation set up by the Senate go to show that American people have been systematically deceived by propagandists as to actual I conditions in llussia. The testimony of Dr. William C. Huntingdon', former Commercial Attache of the

American Embassy in Russia, and of PnOFKSSOR SaJIUEL M. H.MU'EIt, a specialist on .Russia, shos that grcat'l sums have been sent (o America to pay for .this misleading propaganda, one single consignment mentioned totalling £2,000,000. In some cases at least the Bolshevik propaganda has had very recently direct support from the Germans. The. most interesting part of the evidence, however, is that relating to conditions in Russia. According to this the Bolshevik Government has Eailed morally, politically, and economically not only as regards the belter class of the people, but as regards tlic masses for whose benefit it is supposed to he run. It is now ascertained that the country is, contrary to some recent reports circulated by ' propagandists in America, rapidly.approaching complete chaos, and it is likely that starvation and sickness arc. overwhelming' whole cities' behind the veil of secrecy which has covered 1 Russia this winter. The Bolshevik rulers are stated to have alienated the larger proportion uf the population and arc maintaining themselves only by terrorism and*tho control of transportation. _ It is n ratiier curious' fact that this. American investigation as to the activities of the Bolshcviki in the' United

States has brought to light the fact thai some of the most active of the leading Bolshcviki in .Russia arc comparatively recent arrivals from New York. Dn. Gkuhge A. Simons, who from 1907 to October, 1018, was in' Russia as head'of the Methodist

Episcopal Mission and College there, staled in his' evidence that last December the Soviet of the northern commune in Pelrograd consisted of lb' Russians and 2G5 Jews from New York.

'."I'm-; time lo grouse is when grousing will do good; the time to refrain is when grousing will make matters worse! The present time, I submit, is one of the times to refrain/' MR. IiOISEJiT Butciivokd, the well-known Labour-Socialist writer, is responsible for these views, and they we're prompted by the constant carping of the critics of the British Government. Mil. Blatoufokd, by the way, explains that he did not vole for the Government, but the fact that he did not want the particular Government which the bulk of the electors did want does' not blind him,to certain plain truths'. And because he is a "sportsman" and believes in "playing the game," Mi:. Blatchl'oj:d, in his very forcible and'breezy style, fenders his brother "grousers"—for he admits that he has been an inveterate "grouser" himself for oyer thirty years—a little good advice. As a sportsman he remarks.in the course of his comments on the ation:--f beg to point nut I hat ro Government <if this or eny other nation since Iho your one has ever succeeded in establishing any Kind of a millennium, hero or elsewhere. II hehoves ns, therefore, to remember Hint, we are asking a number of gentlemen whom it is our daily or weekly habit lo hold up lo censure and ridicule ns lokv, or incompetent, or insincere—wc are asking these alleged bunglers and misfit? to accomplish quickly thai which Hie most able and brilliant Cabinets in history have never succeeded in i:ccoinplishing at all. I don't call that playing the game.

This is not only good sportsmanship hut/good sense, and his position grows in strength when he, proceeds to ■ enumerate n few of the problems which these much-criticis-ed statesmen have to solve. To quote him again:' ' There is the situs'ion in Russia! 1 make no comment. I pass on. There are the situations in Ireland, South .Africa, and India. There is the readjustment ot Hie mail of. 1-jiiropc! (Nice Suuday afternoon jolt for a Labour Confor.'iice.) There is the establishment of a League of Nations! (Any offers?) There is (lie question of the control of Central Asia! There is the problem of the after-war armaments of the Allies''and the United States, on. land and sea! There is the fixing ami apportionment of indemnities! There is the very delicate question of tariffs and preferences. . This is only a beginning, and docs not touch on the great.questions of the reorganisation of industry and commerce, the demobilisation of the Army, etc.. but, as Mb. BlatchFOiiD adds: "If there is any able editor or militant Labour leader willing to tackle that programme I can only say I hope his genius is grcator than his modesty."