WHITE AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18591, 16 January 1926, Page 14

WHITE AUSTRALIA

IS IT A REALITY? INVESTIGATIONS IN NORTH. {7BOIC OUH OWN COBBZSPOITDJtNT.) SYDNEY, January 5. Is Australia really white? was apparently the question put to himself by a newspaper correspondent who lias recently been investigating conditions in the far north of the continent. There still exists an impression among many Australians that in the tropical north, White Australia is only as inspiration, and that the yellow man is tenaciously maintaining ttie foothold he gained i u the days of indiscriminate settlement. Beyond Cooktown lies the far north of Queensland, an area double the size of Belgium, controlled by three or four police officers and a staff of blacktrackers. From time to time there are rumours of a steady Japanese infiltration through the unguarded back door of Australia, the Achilles heel of the Commonwealth. The correspondent's investigations led him to the belief that these rumours are incorrect, that the tide of yellow in the north is ebbing. The 300 or 400 miles of indented, isolated coastline from Cooktown north to the extremity of Cape York is a happy hunting ground for the far-off armchair alarmist, who imagines Japanese being landed secretly from luggers on this coast, to shoulder their swags to the nearest township to complicate further the racial tangle of tropical Australia. The correspondent found that, of all the races lending colour to racial variety of Northern Queensland, the Japanese, outside the pearling grounds, is the least considerable element. "The closer one pursues this wily trespasser," declares the writer, "the more spectral he becomes. . . . One of the surprises that awaits the newcomer to the north is the actuality of White Australia there." Hard Row to Fortune. The correspondent found that a fortunate few yellow men had by thrift or heads for business, established themselves in trade. For the others, white labour has left little more than the growing and hawking of vegetables, a table in a tailor's shop, or a job as hotel cook. Braced with the tonio of high •wages, the white man will tackle any other job that may be offering, whatever may be the temperature, and to hew wood and draw water is as fair a roadl to fortune as any that the far n<?rth offers. The correspondent admits that there has been collusion at various times between aboriginals and Japanese to secure for the latter half-caste girls, but gives an assurance that the traffic has now been suppressed. "It •is natural to ask," he says, "what assurance can bo given that the suppressed traffic may not be started again. The allegation of a peaceful penetration of Japanese settlerp into northern Queensland is an improbable story without a scrap of evidence adduced so far to justify an.y alarm. If such scares were not dangerous in a world still suffering from the nervous irritability of war strain, _ it would merit no more than the derision it receives in the north. But that an alien race should have the freedom of the territorial waters and coast of 1 Northern Australia to an extent that if permitted bv no other nation off its shores, without strict oversight, is a matter of grave conoern. It is not the presence of the Japanese pearl-fishers that is tho source of danger, but the absence of any systematic surveillance and the indifference it bespeaks. The generality of the Japanese may go about their licensed and ■ lawful occai sions harmlessly, but the easiness to do ill deeds has .already made ill deeds done, and opportunity still tempts. The recruiting of - blacks for the pearl luggers is new permitted' under regulations which prescribe the conditions of service and the rates of pay, but from the time the black fellow ships until the timo he is returned to port and draws hip wages, deposited with the harbour-master, Vie is a Wank on offioial' records. Altogether there is a vagueness about the relations of Japanese and blackfellow on tho far northern coast which suggests that, ■to the many crimes against the aborj igine for which Australians owe atonement, may have to be added 1 at the present day that of neglect. A periodical police patrol would go far to remove this suspicion. If extended to the pearling grounds, ifc would be a ealutory reminder to the alien; exploiters of their wealth that they are still in Australian territory." The correspondent also touches upon the various Chinatowns of the coastal cities, such as Cairns, Cooktown, Innis(fail, and Atherton, but he found them mostlv in a Btate of decaying squalor •bespeaking, the disappearance from the north of the old yellow population. Where .the Britisher or Australian has not pushed him out, the Chinaman is •being ousted by vigorous Greek-, Italian. Maltese, or some other Southern European nationals who love to live in community settlements.