WHITE, BLACK, OR BROWN

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 122, 17 February 1920, Page 8

WHITE, BLACK, OR BROWN

£ir,—"Pacificus," in the article "Wlntc, Black, or Brown," rases some very, interesting questions and prob.ems. ~le begins with tho assumption that it is uccpswirv for the people inhabiting the Pacific Islands to have some (utsulcr to rule them, and that i.t is their destiny to become liivcs of industry for the benefit of some employers of indentured labour. He po'nts out that because Germany chose to make beautiful Samoa into a means of increasing the wealth ot a fe.v wealthy Germans the plantations which these" strangers established will require an army of indentured Uiinamen Jo keep them from reverting to a state of nature. . .. Ts it best that these plantations should be worked under these circumsbin-ics. Is it advisable to get an admixture of yel-io-.v blood. which we fear, 'nlo the brown races of tho Pacific, which we do l.ot fCUT ? Then them is the case of New rides and New Caledonia. "Pacifieus tells us that the Japanese are pouring in as indentured labour, as the Frcmli have no such scruples as our labour unions have against indentured labour. Ke says the tropics cannot he rorked without, indentured labour, ami "horrible capital" that Professor M'Kcnzie wis Against. If that is so, is it necessary to work these tropics in the way tured labour and "horrible capital works them? Is it necessary, by indenturing this yellow labour to introduce it to- tho Pacific and so menace tho posit 1 on and very existence of the Jintish Empire? „ ,t. • It was not so that the British Empire iu the Pacific came into existence. It was tho pluck and enterprise and strong arms of the British people that developed the British Empire The Lauoir unions here have 110 direct interest cither for or aja'nst indentured labour, and 1 do not 'know that "Capital" has ever injured Professor M'Kenwe pereonally, that he should rail against it, so it seems io me that underneath these persons words and actions there must be some deener princ'ple than pure selfishness. There- is no doubt in the minds of disinterested people, who have been there and know, that the system of indentured labour as it existed until the year 1920 in the Pacific Islands had as its foundation and its whole structure, a strong vein of selfishness —a desire to accumulate wealth from the labour of a foreign people in a sultry climate. I can still picture those white brutes with their rides, revolvers, and whips hunting the patient Chinago to work in the sweltering sun while they drank their 111111 111 the shade of the sheltering palm. That the Labour unions and Professor M keuzie object to this traffic in human lives for gain, and to the spreading of tho yellow menace over the Pacific is not 'strange to the deep thinker. When the Peace Conference was held jniParis and mandates were given io certain powers for ■ certain purposes the principle of <r self•detormination' , was established—not indentured labour, which iq the modern substitute for slavery, in these garden islands, but a kindly, paternal oversight until they are educated enough to manage their own affairs. These wise men went far bsyond the labour unions and Professor M'TCenzic. Tliev sought a remedy that would bring ■ a world-wide benefit. Protect and 'cava the people freedom of internal .Government, freedom to control their industry, freedom to fix conditions of labour for nil. freedom to prescribe for the pontile the best and happiest and fullest life was the ipsenee 'of their policy. "Pacifieus" describes tho life of the Marshall Group to-day. There the .Tan. is a real coloniser. He i* doing the work himself, not employing Chinese end sieve, drivers. If the "brown man is botW aW" fi staid i"> "'n Hi" ttni""'" for existence in the tropic good ln'k to him. Tin 1 he i* t'"l. It has been amply proved that white men enn live as healthy lives and do as much work as any other colour if they observe proper health conditions. The study of tropical diseases hms enabled communities to abolish tropical diseases from the most unhealthy parts, for example, the Panama Canal zone. The white races arc committing suicide. In man's individual scramble for wealth he takes no thought of tho welfare of the community, and when ! wealth becomes the. standard of excellence the race decays.

. I lielieve that tho action of the workers of to-day is not wholly selfish. They see dimly the possibility of a belter form of society where the family Will be tho first, enro of tho Stato; where every child will he helped to grow into the best possible citizen; and where men will be respected for their care for the welfare, of the State rather than for their acquisitiveness. Probably the methods adopted by the workers are too direct, but I lxjliovo tho motivo is not bad.

Under present conditions we have not the men In ocninv tho..,- 111-aciv liuti-. ill Samoa Hint "Pacificus" is so anxious about. It is our mission to teach the natives to work their own land. Wo have (aiight many of the Maoris and they wero one? as little inclined to work as the Snnioai'6 are to-day. That mission will appeal to the true rebuiiders of tho Empiro and race—to those who havo put self aside and are considering what is best for the race in ixirtieular and the -world in general. "Capitalism" is as much syndicalism as ia the

notion of the workers. The workers have adopted a system of economic warfaro because they are. too impatient with the long process of social reconstruction through education which was the ideal of tho old trades unions, and capitalism has adopted the principle of combination into larger and larger trusts to avoid trade competition in the industrial warfare. Both make for failure. .Syndicalism is as bad for Capital'as it is for Labour. "Paeificus" says the writing is on the wall. It is, but he. cannot read it any more than his countrymen could in Europe. "That mystic writing ever true, That writing on the wall foretells, Tho ringing of the joyous bells, • Ring out the old. ring in the new." —I -am, etc., P. W. MACKENZIE. ' Wellington, February 11, 1920.