PACIFIC PICTURES.
WHAT northcliffe saw, GROWTH OF JAPAN. VIEWS ON AUSTRALIA. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, May 18. Lord Northcliffe, at a luncheon given him by the Australian and New Zealand Club at the Hotel Cecil, made an interesting reference to the Japanese question. After allusions to the fact that Australia bad no arsenals, he added: “Our little brown friends are getting nearer and nearer Australia. Any person who goes to Japan and realises her true position and the remarkable growth of her population will understand that Australia, which is practically empty, is in very great danger. Australians tell me, ‘We will keep them out.’ Australia keeps them out because she has the protection of the British fleet. “Can the Americans and Canadians keep them out?’ Lord Northcliffe asked, and thundered “No! British Columbia and -Honolulu are alive with Japanese/’ He regarded the Japanese as the Germans of the East, with a propaganda of spying and emigration all over the world. They had covetous eyes on the Commonwealth and Dominions. IMMIGRATION. Lord Northcliffe criticised the immigration scheme. “It is easy to put a man in a ship at Tilbury and land him at Perth, Sydney or Melbourne, anywhere except Northern Queensland; but there are no preparations to receive him when he arrives, such as there are in Canada, when the Canadian Pacific railways make wonderful preparations for the reception of immigrants, hence the number of people who returned from Australia. There is an alarming number returning. This should be stopped. Every one who’ returns to his native village is the worst advertisement Australia can have.”
Lord Northcliffe referred to Australians designating immigrants as “pommies.” He did not understand what it
meant, but it was regarded as an insult. A gentleman seated near Lord Northcliffe’s table interjected: “Rosy cheeks.” Lord Northcliffe provocatively replied: “Like yours.” Lord Northcliffe sounded a note of warning about the large number of Italians emigrating to Australia. "There are several types of Italians,” he added, asking: “Are you getting the right type? We want to hold Australia British.” He stressed the necessity of careful handling of immigrants on arrival. He paid a tribute to the Barnardo boys as the best type of immigrant. “A man of thirty-five,” he said, “became a grouser. I met plenty such, and they are slacking about from town to town, getting the extraordinary hospitality that everybody gets in Australia, and cursing the country.” VIEWS GN LABOR.
Lord Northcliffe launched into a discussion on feeding the Australian workman, saying: “He is as well fed as anybody in this country. The workman in England has no idea how well the Australian workman is fed. No man in England can imagine wnat Australia is like until he sees it. There are all sorts of unexpected things and places which you can never contemplate. What surprised me was the beauty places. We have heard for the last twenty years more about New Zealand than Australia.” Lord Northcliffe deplored the Labor attitude in certain Australian States, adding that there was no place in the world where Labor is King to such a great extent, while in Queensland it was a dictator. A contrast was provided by Canada, which had not tied herself to ridiculous Labor leadership. Canada had not made Labor so dictatorial and costly that it could not be an exporting country. This was true of Queensland. “I became unpopular for saying these things,” he added, “but I am used to unpopularity.” In New Zealand. Labor seemed to Lord Northcliffe more orderly and less arrogant. Australia is so far away that Australians had no standards of comparison. They had many beautiful things, but did not admire them because they = lacked means of comparison with other places. In Australia he was asked to admire second-rate buildings and bridges, but not the magnificent physique of the people, which is the best in the world. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.
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Taranaki Daily News, 20 May 1922, Page 5
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648PACIFIC PICTURES. Taranaki Daily News, 20 May 1922, Page 5
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