ASIA AWAKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 106, 20 September 1912, Page 6

ASIA AWAKE.

I ♦ I A DEFENCELESS AUSTRALIA. | ADDRESS BY CANON GARLAND. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent). Wellington, Wednesday. Canon Garland, of- Brisbane, gava a stirring address before the New Zealand Club on Australia's defenceless position. He set out to speak on the urgent need for greater speed in populating the Comj monwealth territory from within and J from without, and did actually d\yell : on ; ] this point at the end, but he devoted much of his limited time to pointing oufthe menace offered to a "white Australia" by Japan and China combined. "What shall the future of Australasia be ?" he asked, and then went on to show; the almost stationary position of the population of Australia in comparison with ' the rapid growth of the populations of the German Empire and the United i States. Australia and! New Zealand combined numbered but sy z millions, while those other nations, and particularly the Eastern nations, were rapidly increasing. A white race under the most favoredconditions took eighty years to double itself, while a colored race under the worst conditions doubled itself in sixty years. While the .English women were preventing the growth of population, the Japanese women, in order to make up for the great loss of life in the RussoJapanese war, were acting in the opposite direction. It was undeniable that ■ to-day Japan was more powerful in the Pacific than Britain in the Atlantic. Let this fact be borne in mind, together with the cheerfulness with which the Japanese bore taxation for national purposes which had to be considered together with the insane hatred of both Japanese and Chinese for Australia, and add to that the engagement of Great Britain in a European war. What would happen? Why. the mere weight of numbers of Chinese and Japanese would crush Austral in. There would be but very little fighting. The greatest event in the history of the world had just happened in the East. China had become a republic. "Make no mistake about the Chinese character," said the Canon, with emphasis; "don't estimate the Chinese people by the cabbage gardener you don't know. There may be a very good purpose behind his cultivating cabbages in the Northern Territory, where he will never sell any. The Chinese is subtle, cunning and thoughtful. He can wait and plan. He never rushes."

Tiic Canon thru .showed how the Chinese do things, instancing the ordering of •20,0W miles of railways at once and the establishment in London of a Chinese Bank (half the directorate of which were to be Chinese), with a capital of £2,000,000. This hatred of the Australian by the Chinese was growing in Australia at an alarming rate. What, then, must be the outcome of such hatred? A Chinese gentleman had subtly expressed it. "CJod," he said, "took Australia from His idle children and gave it to his industrious children." "Do you see the point';" asked the Canon. "Cod will take it from us Australians if we do not occupy the country and will give it to those who will. That is what the Chinese really meant." He suggested that !he Japanese were behind the: Chinese revolution and that they were already inlluencing a great power over China. The two combined would laugh at the "white Australia" legislation. It was useless io prevent invaders with an Act of Par : linmeni, passed in Melbourne. He yielded to no one in upholding the "white Australia" policy, but the mere fact that Australians had passed laws on the subject was futile without the, power to enforce them. "What keeps Australia inviolate to-day?" he asked. "The British lleet and the British flag, and yet the phrase has been used, 'haul down the flag.' T tell you that, were that done i we should be crushed by mere weight of [numbers from the East." Port Darwin I was called the 'back door of Australia, but it would become the front door to teeming millions from the East unless kept and guarded by men of patriotism, (piaiiU a;i'l character. He concluded by reciting Essex Evans' poem; "Fill up thy frontiers, .Man the gate before too late."