EAST AND WEST.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 131, 26 February 1908, Page 6

EAST AND WEST.

Although it has not yet taken definite shape on the lips of any responsible statesman, the feeling lurks at the back of many men's minds that international relations are gradually shaping towards a mighty conflict between the Caucasian and the Asiatic. It is this feeling .that'' keeps the eyes ' of Australasians upon " the Asiatic problem," and invests with such interest for' them the disagreement between Japan and America. Any man in the street will demonstrate to his own satisfaction the inevitableness of a racial Armageddon in the not distant future. "Japan is notoriously resentful of the Australasian antipathy to-' wards Asiatic immigration. It is notorious! also, that Japan is tirelessly endeavouring to obtain a foothold in America, and Canada. China is

' awakening.' Mr. Taft is obviously convinced of the. inevitableness of a war between Japan and China on tlie one hand, and Europe and America on the other, for has he not, in urging l the need for American naval improvement, openly dragged in 'Japan as an enemy to be fought as soon as America. is ready i" This •is the general i'drift of the argument of the man ,in the.street. It lacks coherence; every sentence in it is a non-sequitur. Yet the; man in the street prides himself upon thinking in'epochs, and of disentangling a world tendency -from the meah of immediate events. This dwelling upon' a great war of ; the. races not only has no logical justification, but is "an unhealthy habit as well. The ' London " Standard " had some observations upon the subject lately which are worth consideration from ; those who are more and more becoming-the victims of hallucinations and nightmare.'.' In the first place there' is no evidence whatever that Japan and China dream of conquering the "Western nations., They have their own ordinary concerns to occupy all their energies. They are both Empires, with sufficient- cares of Empire to.ikeep them from fulfilling the prophecy of a tenth-rate novelist out of a sheer love of the sensational. As to the " general, tendency," and the inevitableness of its end, the in the street and the sensation-monger, at the . desk forget that; world-tendencies have always , remained undiscovered, until they have reached their goal. As the " Standard" puts, it: "The rise and fall of nations may be deter- 1 mined,; not by the":great universal movements,' which all'men are able to estimate, but by some; little' fact which no'politician could ,foresee. ; The divisions of modern Europe, were settled,' not by secular and irresistible influences, but first by the accident that near the end of the eighteenth century a Napoleon was born in Corsica, and secondly, by the; coincidence that, a hundred 1 years : later, <an unambitious and steady-going King of Prussia was served by the most pertinacious statesman'; and the most scientific' soldier within the memory of living In a sense it may be true that the occasion finds the man: Biit the man is quite as likely to make the' occasion. In. any case, though a'pleasant, it is an idle exercise to fashion the future according to, our theories. But, what reason have we to suppose either that-the material progress of Japan will; be un-; obstructed, or that its energies will be diverted' towards; the regions reserved •for the white races? It might have been thought that for some generations to come the Mikado and his successors will have their work cut out for them in organising, their new-won Empire and in dealing with rivals nearer home, than-'' the kinsmen of , their British ally."-; ..< .

- As in the'life:of an individual, so in the life of tlia world: great results spring from trivial things. If abundance of ' data respecting any movement, careful records of its orderly and processional development, and the concentration upon these of the attention of thousands of competent students could enable one to forecast the next few stages of the movement, we ought to be able ,to say something with confidence respecting the structure of the British Empire-nn ,1950. But no man can feel confident of what the position will be even after the next Imperial Conference. How much greater is the difficulty, then, of establishing a plausible case for the inevitableness of the conflict between East and West. The people of Australasia'are apt, in brooding over." the yellow peril," to get into the wrong frame of mind for considering the actual " Asiatic question." As it presents itself, that; question is merely one of immigration, and it is better that Australia and New Zealand should .treat it as this and. nothing more. Their protests against Asiatic immigration will be the more impressive in Jhe eyes of British statesmen if they are free from suspicion of being the outcries of people in the grip of nightmare.