Mangonui County Times AND NORTHERN REPRESENTATIVE. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1904. The Yellow Peril.

Northland Age, 18 October 1904, Page 2

Mangonui County Times AND NORTHERN REPRESENTATIVE.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1904. The Yellow Peril.

“ What right, what true, what fit we justly call, Let this be all my care—for this is all.” —Pope.

What May Happen if Japan is Victorious. Japan’s great object, says Mr. Stafford Ransome, is to secure the mastery of the Pacific. China’s primary aim will be to get back what she can of the territory wrested from her by Russia, and she will spend a century or so in absorbing East and Central Asia. She will follow the line of least resistance, and so will leave her crowded populations of warrior races, alone, but will pour herself on the provinces of Eastern Bussia. Long ago, Li Hung Chang declared that China was the mulberry-leaf, and Bussia the silkworm absorbing it. But what if China becomes the silkworm, and Eastern Bussia the mulberry-leaf ? And if victo--1 rious Japan claims the mastery of the Pacific this must profoundly affect Australia. One ‘ English journal declares, already that a victorious Japan means that Australia and, say, California, British Columbia, New Zealand, must fall under i the domination of the yellow . races. All this may seem wild and idle dreams to many of our readers, hut they may yet become actual and menacing facts. The divorce betwixt East and West is, beyond question, extremely wide. As Budyard t Kipling sings:

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till earth and sky stand presently at God’s Great Judgment Seat ; But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth! The “ Illustrated Mail ” in an article says : —ls our alliance with Japan a terrible blunder ? All Europe is unanimous in replying in the affirmative, not through any hatred of John Bull, for even our best friends are convinced that we have made a great mistake, and enemies even of Bussia shake their heads in doubt. How have we blundered? Well, if Great Bri-

tain had not allied herself with Japan the present war, so the critics say, would almost certainly not have occurred, for it is only through this alliance that other Powers have refrained from intervention. If ultimate victory rests with the Japanese we shall see a European nation conquered by an Asiatic race—a white race defeated and humbled by a yellow one. What effect will this have on China’s slumbering millions, on the densely-packed population of India, on the countless millions of all Asia ? If little Japan is able to conquer the strongest military Power in Europe, nay, in the world, will not the people of Asia grow restless and turbulent and defiant, finally rising from their seeming stupor, and by sheer weight of numbers drive out the European Powers, perhaps even crossing the Urals and subjugating 19k itself ? That is the according to we have ever possible by with a yellow not a bogie imaginations, the Ear East the danger. H -

Europe, arm, equip, and train these hundreds of millions ! . . . But the whole of Asia contains a total population of 795,600,000! The first cloud indicating the coming storm is already on the horizon. The Asiatic League, whose watchword is “ Asia for the Asiatics,” has been formed, with headquarters at Tokio, with agents, representatives, and supporters throughout Asia. Bussia is naturally considered as the worst sinner, the greatest aggressor, but when the bear’s claws are cut —what then ? As long as the Chinese remain faithful to the doctrines of Confucius, the Yellow Whirlwind is not to be fpajfed. He laid down the principal that no Chinaman should seek to depart from the ways of his forefathers, to seek conquest or territory. At the present time the profession of arms is demised in China; no father whdse son shows any ability would dream of allowing him to become a soldier. In China a soldier is on the bottom rung of the social ladder, and the rank and file contain the lowest and most degraded of Chinese. But what Japan has done in quarter of a century, may not China do likewise ? May not old ideals be shattered and a social and political rev'olution equally take place in the land of the yellow dragon ? If the awakening of the slumbering Chinese be delayed for a century, Sir Bobert Giffen && mutes that the population of Europe will then far outnumber the yellow race, and render an invasion of Europe impossible. In the last century countries of European growth increased their population from 170,000,000 to 500,000,000, while the birthrate among the yellow rac,ea, by no means so large. Hence he estimates that if this continues there will be at the close of this century some 1,500,000000 or 2,000,000,000 Europeans against 400,000,000 Chinese. But, of course, when the day arrives for the great overthrow of European power in Asia the Chinese would receive the support of all other Asiatic races. From their geographical position, Bussia would be the first, England the last, to fall before the armies of Asia. But it is Great Britain which would have most to defend and most to lose when the ideal of Asia for the Asiatics takes tangible form. In India we rule 300 millions of people and an area of 1,825,000 square miles; a land fifteen times the size of Great Britain and Ireland and a population seven times greater than our own. We garrison this vast empire with seventy thousand armed whites, one to every four thousand natives. We have had one Indian Mutiny, quelled because they had no great leader among them, and those who know tell us we are not loved of the heavily-taxed natives. But the Japanese victories have shattered the notion that the West is always stronger than the East, that the Asiatic shall be always defeated and subjugated by the European, and in Mail” : —“I feel quite confident, knowing from my own experience what a brave and clever fellow the Chinaman is, that were I accorded the necessary power and given an absolutely free hand hy the Chinese Government, I could, in the space of two or three years, provide the Chinese Empire with an army that would be second to none in the world.” Moreover, in his Autobiography Lord Wolselev deliberately expresses the opinion that the Chinese are the coming rulers of the world. Lord Wolseley will certainly not go to China to transform its 300,000,000 people into a mighty military nation. But may not the Japanese do so ? Has not Japan factories, arsenals, dock-yards, and skilled workmen who could, independently of the great awakening of these countless millions British power in India may vanish for ever. |To the Englidyum the Yellow

tion—to the Russian it is a very real peril, for he remembers that Bussia was absolutely dominated for two centuries by an Asiatic raoe, that even as late as 1571 Moscow was captured hy Asiatics. For two centuries they were as supreme in Bussia as we are this day in India. Nor did they confine their ambitions to Russia. They submerged Poland, ravaged Hungary, and earned their victorious standards as far as Olmutz in Moravia. Only two centuries ago the Turks penetrated as far as Vienna. European conquest by Asiatic people is no new idea —there is nothing new under the sun. For a thousand years it was persisted in; for a paltry two hundred years the ambition has slept, yet it is but latent, and may it not awaken with the victorious roar of the cannon of the Mikado ?