Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette. SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1919. JAPANNING THE UNIVERSE

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 3778, 3 May 1919, Page 2

Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette. SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1919. JAPANNING THE UNIVERSE

To-day Sir James Allen i.s expressing alarm concerning the spread of Japan iv the Pacific. So ho should. .Japan .sent a very able delegate and clcvyr diplomat to tho Peace Conference in the person of Baron Makino, but Providence provided a strong antidote in .William Hughes of Australia. We aro convinced that but for tho courage and pertinacity of the fiery Foderal Premier, Japan would have carried its greatest desire--tho adoption by tho League of Nations of the principal of racial equality. Tbe Mikado has been Japanning the Pacilic Islands down Ihrough nearly all the years that the Kaiser was Germanising the world. Loth nations followed tho policy of peaceful penetration. But Japan reckoned without tho vigilance of a ardent advocate of a White Australia, and Baron Makino, probably fully assured of sympathy from other delegates, found them all weaned away by the vehemence of William Hughes. And ko tho Japanese delegation had lo give way. Tho courage of tho Ausl Lilian delegate in forcing such a retirement by a powerful delegation must bo recognised. We are glad to know that William Massey ranged Ynnself by tho other Australasian, but io the latter belongs the victory. It is well that Britishers should not waste uiy sympathy on Japan. All men are cot equal, and least of all can the world afford to make possible a piebald population. Besides, tho Japanese in their own land arc even more intensely insular and exclusive than we are "in Australasia. It js Japan for tho JapaneHo only all the time. No outsider, be ho Englishman or Dutchman, can own a bit of land there, nor is he welcomo in any other capacity than that of a free-spending tourist. Tho Japanese, however, want the right to enter freely into every part of the world, by the withdrawal of tho colour line. It has been said by those who claim to know the Japanese intimately that they would rather have racial equality given to them in Paris than tho Marshall and Caroline Islands. Wo do not doubt it.