PACIFIC PROBLEMS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1927, Page 1

PACIFIC PROBLEMS

ENTRY OF ASIATIC RACES. SYDNEY, Sept. 8. Dr Radford, Anglican Bishop of Goulburn, in New South Males, and one of the most distinguished and thoughtful observers of Australian churchmen, in a few borne truths as a result of first-hand impressions, tells the public that the problems of tbo polyglot Pacific constitute an opportunity or a peril, just as they.wish it. for both the Commonwealth of Australia and the Dominion of New Zealand. Dr Radford, who ni'ways weighs liis words carefully, and is listened to with respect, urges the public to take a deeper interest in problems which, be says, may constitute one of the future perils of the Pacific., affecting not only the interest of the British Empire in that vast territory, and in the countries from which Oriental migrants are drawn, but the interests also of the two white communities which are the twin Pacific outposts of the Empire and of Western civilisation.

Dr Radford cites, as one of the outstanding features of what he terms the new Pacific, the entry of Asiatic races, and says that the Indian population in Fiji is, in itself, big enough to be a great problem for statesmen and for missionaries, and that the task of building up the diameter of the Fijian population of the second and third generation of Christians is complicated by the influence of the Indian migrants in their midst. Indian nationalism be finds at work. Literature and emissaries from India, Dr Radford says, have lately been fostering the spirit of Indian nationalism, not merely as an Indian grievance or ambition, but as part of the agitation for the rights or liberties or claims of subject races. AVhat be says, in effect, is a clarion call to thinking people to ponder over problems. crucial in tneir latent issues, of the Pacific, and especially of the race? in Fiji.