WHITE AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17985, 31 January 1924, Page 12

WHITE AUSTRALIA

LORD LEVE&HULME'S | CRITICISM. ; .. . i CASE FOR COLOURED SETTLEMENT. (fbom btra own cobbespohmsht.) SYDNEr?,,' January 24. Lord Leverhulrne's criticism of the White Australia policy, comment which has not, generally speaking, been favourably received, invests with special interest an arresting article,in a recent issue of the "Sydney Morning Herald," by the Anglican Bishop oi Willochra (D'r. Gilbert White), the author, by the way, of "Thirty Years in Tropical Australia." He puts the case for coloured settlement in the north of Australia. "We have to face the fact," he eays, Uthat India, China, and Japan, to say nothing of other Esastem countries, are terribly overpopulated., are growing; in power and in intelligence, and toll not long bo' content to see 100,000.square miles or good cultivable land lying unused. If an Eastern nation should desire this land—and should proceed to take it, what could wo say or do? Our only protection, of course, is the British Fleet, but even Britain would have a difficult task to justify a dog-in-the manger policy before the League of Nations if the matter came before it. My own opinion is that it would be far wiser for Australia to cut oif the Far North and organise it for coloured settlement under our own direction, in the. same way as we now administer Papua. It would give employment to thousands of Australians as administrators, .mechanics, overseers, etc., and it would provide Australiawith a ready market for its products, and supply it also with .much-needed tropical products. The Bishop of Wiilochra does not propose indentured labour, which, he admite ia always liable to abuse. . Hje suggests that Indian or other Empire settlers would bo given land and invited to settle, with adequate protection and at least a couple of representatives in the Federal legislature. They would be taxed as other citizens are, but they should not be allowed to visit the southern part of Australia without a passport. "The common cry," he adds, "is that they would filter eouth and contaminate the white man. I do not think there is the least danger of anything of the.kind. The chief danger will be that white wastrels will filter north and try to live on.the coloured population without working." As a protection against the unrestricted freedom of the coloured set- j tiers, he suggests a frontier line anda frontier police. He concludes: "Is it better to have a coloured population under our control living and working m the Far North for Australia, or to lose the North altogether ?"