THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, MAY 31, 1910. A BULWARK FOR AUSTRALASIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10057, 31 May 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, MAY 31, 1910. A BULWARK FOR AUSTRALASIA.

The proposal that the Eastern Archipelago should be established as "a bulwark for Australia and New Zealand," ought to make an appeal to public interest and consideration in Great Britain as well as in New Zealand. It is put forward by an "Empire Review" writer who justifies his nom-de-piume of "Pioneer" by recalling Malay experiences of more 1 than half a century back. And briefly it amounts to this: that that chain of big and little islands numerously strung; along from China to New Guinea and placed as though designed to shield—or menace—Australia, "a world still awaiting its destiny," might be so administered and their people so organised and ' governed as to "preserve a firm footing for the white man in this , threshold uf the Far East, and thus the Archipelago would serve as a bulwark for Australia and New Zealand." Against- the swarming peoples of those countries generally capitalised as "the Far East,.* of course, and especially the Chinese, who already have such a formidable bold upon some: of,the greater islands. In short, it is the "buffer state" device —an old one, but broached here with a picturesquely and boldly new application.. The. Malays are understood, to

be restive, to say the least, under the domination of the Chinese, who are in the inlands as taskmasters rather than labourers, as exploiters of the natives, middlemen and employers, altogether in the pose of a superior caste that finds the money and brains while the Malays contribute the work of the hands. The two races are distinct and will not mix. The assumption is that the Malays | and the natives generally would be amenable enough to a large, loose sort of federation devised as much lor their own protection as for that incidentally obtained from it by an othei nationality. The significance to | Australasia of such an idea is immense, it need scarcely be said, litre we lie at an end of the earth, bordered by 750,000,000 of coloured peoples, between whom and our desirable continent are groups of islands, stepping stones from the coloured country to the white, laid so nearly to Australia that from Port Darwin to isles in the Timor Sea i 3 only a day or two's steam, and thence the track to or from Asia ia easy. But suppose these steppingstones could be converted into barriers on the same principle that a headland which naturally promises a landing'is fortified and made a place to be avoided? The larger islands are fertile in the extreme, and some of them already have a big output of semi-tropical products, such as rice, sugar, coffee, tobacco and sugar. Under systematic development (heir productivity could be very greatly increased. Java is in specially favourable case, perhaps, and Borneo may be equally favourable, but the great possibilities of Sumatra are everywhere admitted, and the progress that has been made in the Straits Settlements is undeniably striking. 1 It is scarcely a white man's country perhaps; those who have lived there find it trying, though the natural conditions seem to become less oppressive as civilisation banishes wildness and the evils that accom- , pany it. The significant fact to U3, and to the white peoples generally, ' is that it ia a good country for Asiatics to live in. - So many of thsm have discovered this fact that in the ° Straits Settlements there are more Chinese than Malays, while in the Federated States there is little difference in numbers between the two nationalities. Should China became organised in the political and military senses of the word, and en--1 rol the army of a hundred million men which is reckoned upon, the question of the colors will become imperative. And the prospect suggests itself with " sufficient plaasibiiity to justify r prudent statesmeu in adopting safeguards if they can be devised. The ; Archipelago bulwark proposal may 1 not be found altogether admirable - in this relation. It may be held - faulty or impracticable, out now and 1 again men put forth which B are sometimes pooh-poohed until it is discovered too late that they were the expression of inspirational foresight; and of such this may be , one. Its own size and the indefinite- ■ nesa at present surrounding it for- ' bid immediately decisive opinion on the scheme, which on the same grounds challenges inquiry. But it is well worth consideration in big - places. I -™—■—- -