The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1913 RACIAL PROBLEMS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 15, 23 May 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1913 RACIAL PROBLEMS.

i The anti-alien legislation which is J now causing serious trouble between j America and Japan lias special interj est tor -Australia and New Zealand, because botii the Commonwealth and our own country have taken action of a somewhat similar nature to check tine so-called “Yellow Peril.” TheWashington message of a few, days ago stating that Japan suggested the ji reference of the Californian question j to the Hague Tribunal opens another i phase of the question and presents a difficulty not hitherto considered. | The right of the people of California or Arizona to protect themselves against practical invasion by a yellow race is not a question that can ever be submitted to arbitration. It is not a question of law but rather of sentiment and racial prejudice. Discussing the matter from this standpoint the “Lyttelton Times hilds that Californians would not accept a decision adverse to their wishes, and New Zealanders, who would not abolish the poll tax on Chinese at | the direction of any court of arhitra-l tors, should he able to sympathise j with the .people on the other side of ’ the Pacific. The analogy of the ordinHr.v court of law, commonly drawn hv I

tl.’o advocates of inteniational peace, fails in such a case. The court of law has the power to enforce its decisions anti tln> dissatisfied litigant must obey, hnt the inteniational court has no snch power. This point has been discussed in various pamphlets hy the distinguished officers of the conditions the riding of an arbitration court cannot ho enforced against an obstinate nation except possibly by (■he creation of a strong world-opinion on the (Subject. They hope that some day the sentiment of peace will induce several of the (treat Powers to cease arming against one another and join in maintaining a police navy powerful enough to insist upon the preservation of peace and the settlement by arbitration of all disputes between peoples. Put until that day comes certain questions involving nation;’! interests will remain beyond the scope of arbitration, and foremost among them must lie the problems of interracial migration.