PARTITION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 2 January 1912, Page 6

PARTITION.

IS AUSTRALIA EFFECTIVELY OCCUPIED ? SHOULD GERMANY HAVE HALF? (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (United Press Association.* London, December 30. ’The “Spectator” of December 23rd contained an article on “German Expansion,” in which was cd the unreasonableness of conceding any British territory to Germany on the ground that all is now in effective occupation. in to-day s issue Professor Caldecott, of King’s College, traverses the article, and asks: “Can we honestly say that four and a half millions of people are in effective occupation of Australia, or are able to keep Japan and China out of it ? Would not . a white Australia bo more stable if the British had the Eastern half of the continent and the Germans the western portion ? Are a quarter of a million .JVestralians equitably entitled to prevent a great nation from taking its place under the Southern Cross? The unoccupied part of Australia is a serious cause of instability when viewing the influence of Europe upon the world in a large way.” To-day’s “Spectator” denounces tiiese opinions as an illustration of the extraordinary lengths to which well-meaning but muddle-headed people will go to put their country in the wrong. “But,” adds the paper, “it :s difficult to find words with which to repel the amazing suggestion that England should hand over to another nation a continent which has been British for over a century. Australia would fight to a man to repel the admission of a foreign nation, and Australia would lie right. For the Mother Country, in a wanton ccstacy of philanthropic sentimentality, to introduce a military race like the Germans would make a bloody struggle for supremacy a certainty.”

A MEDDLER. Sydney, December 31. The “Herald” refers to Professor Caldecott as a meddlesome professor. It says, the “Spectator” wrote the truth when it stated that rather than permit the occupation by any other power of Australia we should fight to the last. The struggle would so weaken the white race that whichever was victor would immediately he menaced by an Asiatic invasion. How anyone could suppose Britain should bo' prepared to present half of Australia to another power passes comprehension. At the same time wo wanted Australia to remain not only white hut British. UTTERLY RIDICULOUS. Melbourne,- December 31. Mr Fisher, referring to the cable, says Professor Caldecott’s statement has only a humourous, side. The suggestion is utterly ridiculous.