WHITES ONLY.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 February 1921, Page 5

WHITES ONLY.

AUSTRALASIA’S FUTURE. JAPANESE NOT WANTED. I JOHN FINDLAY’S VIEWS. £y Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Feb. 11, 8.15 p.m. London, Feb. 10. > Sir John Findlay, in an article in the Press, says New Zealand and Australia, while appreciating Japan’s assistance in the war. have resolved to remain white men’s countries. They have prepared plans for a big scheme, firstly of Imperial, and secondly of European immigration, barring Germans and Russians, and the scheme will presently be launched. Sir John says that New Zealand and Australia object emphatically to a renewal of the Anglo-Japanese treaty, which is not justi ?d now that the Ger(man and Russian menaces have been removed and America is ready to make common cause in the event of a Japanese peril. The question must be properly threshed out at the coming Imperial Conference.—Reuter Service. WORK FOR THE CONFERENCE. DEFENCE GF THE PACIFIC. The Prime Minister has been requested by the chairman of the Parliamentary Labor group (Mr Holland) to furnish members of the House with copies of the cablegram asking for the personal attendance of Mr. Massey at the forth2oming Imperial Conference. Mr. Massey may feel constrained to treat the text of the cablegram as confidential, but he has already indicated its purport. The message referred to the importance of the business that would be coming before the conference, and expressed a strong wish for the personal attendance of New Zealand’s Prime Minister. Some of the business that is to come before the conference has been indicated during recent months. The representatives of'the Governments of the Empire will be asked to consider questions of defence. They will have placed before them the recomm eolations of the committee that has been considering the problems of naval defence in Great Britain, and they will receive also the reports of experts concerning the land forces of the Empire. Britain is not building warships at the present time, the pause in construction being due partly to the possession of the big fleet of modern ships creased during the war, and partlv to the need foy time to adapt constructional policy to the lessons of the war, But the pause cannot be of Very long duration, and it is no secret that the British Government wishes to’ know what the Dominion Governments intend to do in the matter of naval defence.

The creation of a Pacific Jeet has got to be faced by the Governments concerned. The necessity for the establishment of a strong Empire fleet in the Pacific was by the Imperial Conference of 1909. and the battlecruiser New Zealand, it will be remembered. was intended originally to be a unit of this fleet. Mr. Asquith stated in the House of Commons in 1909 that the remodelling of the squadrons in Far Eastern waters "was being considered on the basis of establishing a Pacific fleet. The concentration of British naval strength in Home waters, consequent upon the growing German menace, prevented the scheme being realised, but the naval experts of the. Empire appear to be unanimous now In believing that, with the German fleet out of the way, the British Empire must have adequate naval strength in the Pacific. Lord Jellicoe’3 naval mission to Australasia in 1919 was connected directly with this matter. Lord Jellicoe recommended the establishment of a Far Eastern fleet, costing £19,000,000 annually, the cost to be distributed on the following basis: —Britain 75 per cent: Australia, 20 per cent: New Zealand, 5 per cent. New Zealand’s division of this fleet was , to include three light cruisers, six submarines, eight destroyers, and some aircraft,’ costing annually about £1,000,000. The Dominion has actually acquired one light cruiser, to cost annual- - about £250,000. Experts will have something to say to the Conference about the armies of the Empire. They did not think that the Imperial organisation created during the war should be allowed to disappear or become useless through neglect. They wish to secure an understanding among the Governments of the Empire as to duties and responsibilities in the event of another war. The Conference cannot make laws for any State of the Empire, but it can discuss the problems of military co-operation and create a basis upon which the military experts can lay their plans. It has been stated in London that the Dominion Prime Ministers are to be consulted about the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. New* Zealand and Australia are very deeply interested in this matter. The alliance hae to be reviewed or renewed shortly, and there have been reports that the Japanese are going to raise the qustion of immigration into British territories. The British Government proposes to make it clear that the Alliance does not involve Britain in any obligation to assist Japan in a war against the United States. It is obvious that the weakening of the Alliance has a direct bearing upon the extent of the defensive preparations, naval and military, required hv the British Empire in the Pacific. ’ Another matter that is to come before .the Conference is the migration, of population withjn the Empire. The British Government appears to be willing to continue its schemes of assisted emigration to British countries overseas. and it wishes to know how far the Dominion Government are prepared to co-operate. A frank exchange of views by the heads of the Empire’s Governments is considered to be desirable. Dominion.