PERIL OF THE EAST

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 119, 16 April 1930, Page 11

PERIL OF THE EAST

ASIA’S PEACEFUL INVASION. WINNING OCEAN TRADE. Despite the factors of exclusionism, Asia is making a peaceful invasion on ocean trade, and the “Yellow Peril” against which the Western world, has to guard is not one of martial power, but that of peaceful penetration, due to our own habit of increasing dependence on Asiatic services. This was the opinion advanced by Mr J. A. Brailsford, 8.A., lecturing before the W.E.A., at the Oroua Hall, on Monday evening. He stated that not only were thousands of millions of British and other capital invested ,in the lands of cheap labour, but that on the ocean, also, Asiatic crews were steadily displacing those of the Western race. The subtle danger arising from this dependence on the labour of another race was not generally realised, said the speaker. If the employment of Chinese and Indians on British and other Western ships. continued to increase as during the past 30 years, then these seamen would come to have a tremendous power to hold up the world’s commerce by going on strike. The Chinese seamen had demonstrated their unity and strength in the strikes of 1922 and 1925. In the former ease 260>000 tons of shipping, mostly British, had been held up at Hong Kong, and the Chinese employees of that city had'gone on a general strike to support the seamen. In the end the shipping companies had to make very considerable concessions. The 1925 strike was purely one of protest against the shooting 6f Chinese students and workers by the police of the foreign settlement at Shanghai. A striking feature was that, though the shipping companies had deeply resented this political strike, and some had engaged Japanese crews to keep the vessels running, all were glad to take the Chinese back as soon &s they were ready to return. JACK TAR AND JACK CHINA- * MAN.

From 1900 to 1913 the number of Asiatics employed on British ships had increased from 36,000 to 46,800, said Mr Brailsford. During the Great War appeals had been .made to shipowners to employ more Britons in order to safeguard the merchant shipping in case of war, and there had been some response to these appeals, but when the war ended the employmnt of Asiatics began again to increase. Even Australians and Americans, despite exclusionist sentiments, had Chinese crews on their ships trading to the East. The Chinese were preferred not only as being cheaper but also as being more reliable, sober and cheerful in their work than the whites who Offered themselves for these services. It was not surprising, in the speaker’s opinion, that the _ best class of Jack Tar. had no desire to work at such pay and under such conditions as to complete successfully with Jack Chinaman.

Australian officers, said Mr Brailsford, had expressed to him the strongest possible preference for Chinese, one of them declaring that he would walk off his boat if a white crew were engaged. They did not seem to realise that this attitude was inconsistent with a belief in “White Australia.”

JAPAN’S MERCANTILE MARINE.

Asia’s progress was seen again in the growtn or' Japan’s mercantile marine. She had had practically no ocean shipping in 1890, but now she held third place among the nations. While she was still far behind Britain, she was steadily progressing and her share of the world’s shipping had grown from 2.8 per cent in 1904 to 6.5 per cent in 1925, with a further growth since. It might be said that the Western nations, employing Chinese and Indian crews, would be able to compete successfully with Japan 'or some time to come, but could it Le claimed that a vessel ou which the personnel was 80 per cent Asiatic was British in any true sense, even it were owned by British capital? The lecturer contended that control tended to go with the man-power. Factory industries had been established in China and Japan by British capital, but were now almost entirely in the hands of nativo companies. Would not the control of shipping go the same way, if the present trend continued ? CAN EXCLUSIONISM LAST?

Hundreds of millions of pounds of British capital were invested each year in enterprises employing Asiatics and others under conditions unendurable to Westerners, and British industry was allowed to languish. This was one of the large and increasing causes of unemployment in the Homeland, and it had its evil reaction upon our own country. However, the speaker considered it was impossible for us to turn back the hands of the 'clock and retire entirely within ourselves. It was impossible to fence the ocean in with exclusion laws or to call in all foreign investments. Without going deeply into the question of Asiatic immigration until a later lecture in the series, he would express briefly the conviction that “the world is becoming more and more one and we must move with _tno world. The problem of our relations with the Asiatics is not, I believe, one of keeping them at arm’s length, but rather of working with them for better things for us all—us and our children and our children’s children.” Besides discussing Asia’s progress in shipping, the lecturer gave a sketch of the romantic and noble life of Jose Rizal, the national ‘hero-martyr of the Filiponos, who was executed by the Spaniards just before the Philippine Islands were taken by the United States. _ •.

Mr V. Christensen .presided, and at the conclusion of the address it was announced that, on account of the Easter vacation, there would be no meeting next Monday. _ Mr Brailsford’s subject for April 28 will be “China’s Struggle for Freedom.”