VAST, VACANT AUSTRALIA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 221, 29 December 1910, Page 5

VAST, VACANT AUSTRALIA

DESIRED BY THE EASTERN RACES. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 28, 8.20 p.m. Sydney, December 28. ' Dr. Maxwell, a passenger by the Maheno, interviewed, referring to the sugar industry, said he sympathised with the White Australia idea", but it was' not kpown even yet) whether the industry could be left entirely to white labor, and whether white labor could do it economically and satisfactorily. Touching the wider question of Australia's relations with colored nations, he said that Australia's danger lay in the East. Australia was the final outpost of the Pacific, the last great, vacant country, and the eyes of the East were on it. The Japanese were most to be feared, and if they got any sort of foothold in northern Australia, they would never be able to drive them out, and there was no telling the result. Every Japanese was a soldier at heart. When at Hawaii he had learned that there was a large number of Japanese there. They drilled eveTy night extensively for amusement. They had smuggled their arms, too. Australia could not afford to take any risks with the Japanese, for they would do the same here as at Hawaii. He added, "Thousands of immigrants are coming to Australia from America, but in tiie meantime Australia is an empty land, and trouble may come sooner than expected."