Evening post. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1926. AN UGLY SYMPTOM

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 29, 3 August 1926, Page 6

Evening post. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1926. AN UGLY SYMPTOM

■ Hardly had the last shot in the Great War been fired before the imminence of a still greater and more terrible war * was freely prophesied, and the prdphets were all agreed in regarding the Pacific as its principal theatre. The new Amageddon was to represent "the clash of colour," the consummation of the secular strife between the East and the West in which the West had for about two centuries enjoyed a great advantage, but was at last to go down. It cannot be said that Australia and New Zealand, which were to bo in the thick of the fight, were as much scared by these prophecies as perhaps they should have been, nor has the fear of Asiatic immigration, which a generation ago dominated both , countries,, anything like the force that it once had. It was the Anglo-Japanese Alliance which first lulled 1 this fear, and when Britain was induced by strong American pressure to aban"don the Alliance the fear did not revive.' So long as our bar against Asiatic: immigration is- allowed to operate, why should we worry, about tha future? There is, of course, a vague idea that the Washington Treaties which replaced the Alliance with Japan have given us a sufficient security. But the Naval Treaty, while restricting the expenditure on capital ships, left the competition otherwise unabated. The enmity between the United States and j Japan is certainly more bitter than it was before the Treaty was signed, and with the grievous decline of Britain's naval power in the Pacific gives encouragement to the prophets of evil. The efficiency of our Asiatic exclusion laws depends upon a force which we cannot supply ourselves, and which Britain, however willing, may not be able to lend us much longer. How are we to keep the peace and at the same time to keep.New Zealand white? Onr own difficulty is' but a sample of the possibilities of trouble all over the Pacific. There is no need to take the proceedings of the Pan-Asian Oon- j gress at Nagasaki foe seriously, but it is at the best an ugly'symptom. At this "first gathering of world delegates of coloured races" fierce demands /ire being made for racial equality and for the abolition of white domination. As representatives of. the white man's tyranny Britain, Australia, and the United States bear the brunt of the attack. Chinese and Indian speakers made roundly anti-British speeches, said yesterday's cable message, running the whole gamut. While pointing out that Britain and Australia were also j anti-Japanese and citing the Singa- j pore Base and the White Australia policy, Japanese speakers referred ! constantly to America's anti-Japan-ism, urging. Asian unity in order to secure equal treatment and freedom from the whites. , ' { The lowering of Western prestige by the Great War and the unrest which the War has spread in all parts of the Bast are the main, causes of this .inflammatory talk. Much of it may pass, but there is likely to be a permanent residium, and Western diplomacy will need all its skill and all its good manners if a clash is to be avoided. ! As evidence of the gravity of the outlook, the pessimistic diagnosis of Mr. ! J. Merle-Davis, which was reported from ■ Sydney at the beginning of last ! week, is probably entitled to greater | weight than the angry philippics of' the Nagasaki Conference. Mr. MerleDavis is the General Secretary of the Institute of Pacific Belations, whose object he declares to be "to study Pacific questions and remove racial friction, substituting facts for fears and . suspicions." In his tour of the Pacific Mi. Merle-Davis has already visited Japan, is now in Australia, and will soon be in New Zealand. What appears , to have most deeply impressed him in [ his travels is "the circle of fear which exists right round the Pacific.'' America, he says, is afraid of certain elements in Japanese life, and Japan is desperately afraid of America's economic penetration and militarism. Japan is also afraid of China and Russia, while China is much afraid of Japan, as is also Australia. The institute hoped, if possible, to avoid the coming conflict between the ■East and West. Quite frankly Mr. Merle-Davis avows ,his personal belief that the task is an ; impossible' one^ but with a courage which ia on that account all the more laudable, he persists in his appeal to the intelligence of the countries concerned to make an effort to avert the catastrophe.