ARE WHITE RACES WANING?

Evening Star, Issue 19410, 19 November 1926, Page 8

ARE WHITE RACES WANING?

DECREPTITUOE SAID TO BE NEAR The future of the British Empire is a common topic of discussion, and the view is frequently expressed that as every other great empire has passed away there is no desire to expect our own to endure for ever. But a wider problem has now to bo faced, that of not merely one nation, but a whole race, the white raoe. What does the future hold for us and our descendants? We are so accustomed to ruleship in the East that we never dream of the position being reversed. The thing seems unthinkable. Why should it be discussed? Wo have no option. At this moment China is violently anti-foreign, which means practically anti-European. India clamors for Home Rule; during the war tho patriot, Satori Kato wrote: “Whether Japan acknowledged it or not, her object is to acquire the mastery of the Pacific.” If we think in terms of Pan-Asianism the position is this—the Eastern peoples number 900.000. while the whites number only 500.000. and the anti-white feeling seems to be gathering strength—and bitterness.

Why? Partly owing to an unwise peace following upon the_ Great War, partly owing to developments since 1918, and partly to the propaganda of Russian Soviets._ _ M. Maurice Muret, in bis ‘Twilight of the White Races,’ unfolds his views at considerable length, and whole one feels (says an ‘Age’ writer) that here and there certain important factors are he must be credited with having taken a judicial view of the world situation. He thinks the day is coming when the great conglomeration of races will unite to cast of! the mild forms of despotism under which they have been orderly and quietly governed. Looking to the final result, he believes the white races will admit the colored races to membership of the League of Nations, where all world problems can be discussed and settled. During the war there were high hopes of a universal and enduring peace as the reward of sacrifice and agony, but wo soon learned that there is no peace and no satisfaction. Europe’s moral supremacy has been shattered. We had told the Eastern peoples that Christianity meant brotherhood, and then we presented the spectacle of Christian nations engaging in most bloody mutual butchery. The East naturally asks the West why the Christian faith should expect to supplant all other religions, and its representatives pose as superior to all other races. Spengler, the German philosopher, propounds the theory that history shows civilisations following the order of infancy, youth, maturity, old age, and death; and ours is travelling the same inevitable road. We shall not die pleasantly to slow music. Civil wars extending over centuries and marked by mob savagery and Casarean factions equally ferocious will precede the fall of the curtain. Lothrop Stoddard is cheerier, for he tolls us that, while the white race has yet some work to do, its decrepitude is near, and the best can hope for is memories of good accomplished and a conscience that does not unduly accuse. .

M. Muret believes all the great civilised nations are suffering from decline of colonial prestige, all except Gerriiany. who lost her colonies. He even doubts if the British dominions would respond again as they did in 1914, and is of opinion that the bonds of Empire are loosening. But, then, he is a Frenchman, and does hot quite know the soul of the British race. But he is on solid, ground when he points out "that Western civilisation tends to

the progressive elimination of the superior races by the inferior, and of the cultivated classes belonging to the . superior races by claeses without culture.” And here is a sentence which will provoke equal surprise and criticism; “Every advance made in the standard of living drives a nail into the coffin of the nation which makes it.” The lower classes are the most prolific stratum of the population of Britain, and the conditions under which the liberal professions are carried on become every day more desperate. This is particularly disturbing to all the white nations, because they believe they cannot prosper unless Britain is able to send her fleets through all the seas where she has colonies. He quotes M. Lucien Homier as saying that “if the British Empire perished Europe would have no organ with which to broathe,” and M. Rene Johannet. as writing in the ‘Revue Ilniverselle’: “Whatever attacks the stability of the British Empire threatens all civilisation.”

The history of the world as viewed by Europeans may be divided into a Mediterranean period followed by an Atlantic period, to which will succeed a Pacific period. Japan has taken a preponderant position in Asia, and is a candidate for its domination. The Chinese say that if they can use the telegraph and drive a forty horsepower motor car they, are not inferior 10 the whites who exploit them. “Asia for the Asiatics!, Let the foreigners get out!" The sensible view taken by Britain and France is that they cannot yet admit the moral maturity of the natives over whom they rule, and the resentment of subject or other races deepens into hatred. The Great War brought many natives much money in return, for their labor in Europe, and city populations refused to go back to the harder and poorly-paid work of the fields. For all this they throw the blame upon the West. In Africa, also the war did the white races tremendous harm. The

Europeans put an end to fighting among sultans and potty chiefs in Afnca, tmb suddenly tho great ‘Powers of Europe dragged thousands of blacks into bloody fields. Tbs drill sergeants taught them much they never forgot, and trained them to organise and think of self-government. _ . One of the most powerful factors in bringing nearer the twilight of tho white races was the Wilson programme. _ When President Wilson insisted on the right of people (o dispose of themselves he put a powerful weapon into the hands of Turks, Indians, Chinese, and Japanese, and especially the Russian Soviets. Ho supplied them with a revolutionary ferment, which will go on working with an efficiency not easily measurable. Bolshevism is everywhere in the East, and it aims to strike at tlio West by Bolshevisms the East. There is no country in which they are not carrying out an active and untiring propaganda. Japan, smarting under the American Immigration Act, signed a treaty of alliance with Soviet Russia, She did so because sho feared isolaiou. Russia’s fncndlincss with China made Japan seek similar friendly relations* Count Okuttia is credited with saying: “Anglo-Saxon tyranny at the Peace Coneress has fified gods and men with anger.” . . “Tho doctrines of Communism are being spread daily in all Oriental countries, and so the white peoples are confronted by the double threats of Pan-Arianism and Bolshevism.” What can be done to save Europe P What bulwark can we raise against the flood of color? M. Muret believes that the brown and yellow races, along with Russia and America, should be m the League of Nations, that the League should not "be a European association, but worldwide. In this way threatened catastrophes migh bo prevented. Failing this, the subject nations will free themselves, and race conflicts be long-drawn and ferocious. A society renewed and invigorated by higher spiritual principles would, find therein tho salvation alike of Bast and West, In the final issue the question is not one of arms or diplomacy, but of the spirit of justice and brotherhood.

Cyril’s big sister had won a scholarship at school. When the little boy heard the glad news he was delighted. “I say, Cissie,” he cried, eagerly. < 1 When you get it can I sail it in the bath?”

First Artist; “I painted a lump of pig-iron once to look like a cork, and when I threw it into the water it floated.” Second Artist: “That’s nothing! I painted a lump of pig-iron to look like a roast of’beef, and my dog ate three-quarters of it before he discovered his mistake.” . Tommy had been caned by his father, and he was in tears. “You are a crybaby!” exclaimed his friend Gcorgie, scornfully. '“I never cry when clad whacks me!” “P-p’raps you d-don’t,” sobbed Tommy; “b-but my dad p-plays the big drum in the town bandl-