THE PACIFIC

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 70, 20 September 1927, Page 4

THE PACIFIC

PROBLEMS OF RACE

FIJI AND THE INDIANS

(From "The Post's". Reprosontatlvo.)

SYDNEY, Ist Soptembor . Dr. Radford, Anglican Bishop of Gpulburn, in Now South Wales, and ono of tho most distinguished and thoughtful obsorvors of Australian churchmen, in a few home truths as a rosult of first-hand impressions, tells tho public that the problems of tho polyglot Pacific constitute an opportunity or a peril, just as they wish it, for both tho Commonwealth of Australia and tho Dominion of Now Zealand. Dr. Radford, who always weighs his words carofully and is listened to with respect, urges, the public to take a doopor interest in probloms which, ho says, may constitute one of the future perils of tho Pacific, affecting, not only tho intorests of tho British Empire in that vast territory, and in the countries from which Oriental migrants aro drawn, but tho interests also of tho two white communities which are tho twin Pacific outposts of tho Empiro and of westorn civilisation.

5 Ho cited as one of tho outstanding foat'ures of what he terms the now Pacific, tho entry of Asiatic races, and says that tho Indian population in Fiji is, in itself, big enough to bo a groat problem for statesmen and for missionaries, and that tho task of building up tho character of the Fijian population of tho second or third generation of Christians is complicated by tho influence of tho Indian migrants in their midst; Indian nationalism ho finds at work. ■

Litoraturo and emissaries from India, Dr. Radford says, havo latoly boon fostoring tho spirit of Indian nationalism, not merely as an Indian griovanco ' or ambition, but as part of tho agitation for tho rights or liberties or claims of subject races. What ho says, in effect, is a clarion call to thinking people to ponder over problems, crucial in their latent issue's, of the Pacific, and especially of tho races in Fiji.