RACIAL ANTIPATHY

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 146, 20 May 1930, Page 4

RACIAL ANTIPATHY

EXCLUSION OF ASIATICS. SUGGESTED REMEDY. £ v " f “The social and economic arguments Against the exclusion of Asiatics” formed the subject of an address delivered dn Palmerston North last evening by Mr J. A. Brailsford, 8.A., tutor-or-ganiser of the Workers’ Educational i When “Yellow’ Peril” talk was more (generally a topic of discussion than at present, one would have .imagined that millions of Asiatics were looking longingly and hungrily toward these shores, I said Mr Brailsford. During the seven years or more that he had spent in ,/the East, he hardly ever heard or saw ([Australia or New Zealand mentioned in the discussions on the exclusion policy. Nearly always it had been America whose attitude had occasioned of- [ tfenqe. The exclusion practised by AusIftralia and New Zealand, however, was | just as effective, and the method of ‘.enforcing it was in some ways more ‘dangerous. “We simply allow the Government in power to refuse admission iwhonever it desires to exclude any individual. and it is not required to give any reason to us or to the excluded person,” said Mr Brailsford. “I doubt [whether this arrangement would be pleasing to the Asiatics if the question really became a live issue, but up to the present they have resented it less than the.blatant American declarations that all Asiatics as such are to bo shut put.” ENGLISH FINANCIER’S ARGUMENT. While the voice of opposition to the exclusion policy was not often heard, the argument raised occasionally was that put forward by an English financier, Sir H. Sammans, while on a visit [to Sydney eight years ago. His contention was that white folk could live as “gentlemen” if they allowed “niggers” to do all the dirty .work. Citing

the case of the southern part of the United States, tho speaker contended that never in all history had the lot of the workers been happy when their nation had introduced aliens to do the “nigger work.” Ancient Rome gave tho same picture. The once independent yeomen and workers of Rome became idlers, dependent on the doles of the rich and amused by the free circus games. Theirs was a state of misery and degradation, and the nation had degenerated by its own weakness. Decent Australians and New Zealanders wished to avoid the fate of those who admitted a servile caste into their communities. While parasitism was not seen in the world to-day in quite so base a form as in Rome, some notable writers claimed that Britain was suffering from a form of this disease now, said Mr Brailsford. Bernard Shaw spoke of Britain’s “pampered paupers, living on the labour of other nations” and went on to point out how Britain was getting an idle dole-fed class like that of decadent Rome. Giving his own views, the speaker said ho would have no objection to free migration of Asiatics if they could be assured of the treatment due to free, respected humans, and if the white people could thus bo protected from unfair competition. However, the history of free migration to date did not give much hope in that direction. Exclusion was not always the popular policy it is to-day,- and eighty years ago the very opposite was desired. Not only were Chinese kidnapped and practically sold into slavery, but the conditions on some of tho ships in which they travelled wens often terrible and many died on tho voyages. 1 INDENTURE SYSTEM. Touching upon tho indenture system, Mr Brailsford said that, while it had been modified lately and cleansed of some of its abuses, it seemed to be almost impossible to avoid the abuses altogether. Tho speaker referred to the condition of the Ne>- Guinea natives on plantations, the Indians in Fiji and the Chinese indentured coolies in Samoa. He contended that, unless there was provision for families, the system could never be anything but vile. Yet it was this condition of

semi-slavery that had been suggested by some of those who advocated opening the doors of our countries to Asiatics. If there wero going to be Asiatics among the whites, surely it would be better that they should come as free men and bring their families. Under the present system of allowing only a few Asiatics to come, those who gained admission fared well, apart from tho lack of family life. . They certainly got high pay. Discussing the topic from another angle, Mr Brailsford said that, if the doors were thrown wide open, groups of Asiatics would come and bring much of their own social life. There would he tho danger of their introducing some of their endemic diseases and creating epidemics of the most undesirable kind. Should Asiatics come in unlimited numbers, there would bo clashing, as had happened in the past in America and Australia. While such racial conflicts were regrettable, they should not provide the excuse that antagonism was inevitable. It should bo remembered that if an unrelenting exclusionist policy were continued beyond the limits of reasonableness, their probability would be infinitely worse strife than the small riots of the past. All that could be said of the existing racial antipathy was that it showed gradual mingling to be better than the sudden importation of Asiatics by the tens of thousands. OUTLOOK OF FUTURE. - “With the increasing facilities for world transport and communications and trade, it has become impossible for any people to live unto itself,” said Mr Brailsford. “East and West have met. The question is not .whether they shall mingle, but how they shall mingle; whether in strife and under conditions degrading to both, or in harmony for the good of all. The differences are not so great as they appear, tho great divergence between Oriental wages and ours being largely due to currency standards and not to actual differences of comfort. In course of time the use of Western capital in the Eastern world will help to bring the standards nearer still to ours, but in the meantime much harm is being done. I wish to suggest that it is reasonable to believe that exclusionism cannot be a permanent policy and, that being so, it is very

important for people of goodwill to try to see that tho inevitable mingling shall take place under conditions that will favour decency, harmony and tho common weal.” Mr Brailsford suggested that, if the exelueionist attitude was to bo modified at all, wo should encourage family life among immigrants, of whatever race they might be, and devise methods to prevent “sweating.” Even now encouragement might be given to the exchange of students and teachers between our own country and Asia. The institution of exclusion had helped to solve the problem of tho past generation, but the speaker had come to the conclusion that as the world was now progrssing, we really did not protect ourselves from its dangers by shutting ourselves up, but merely deprived ourselves of much of life’s enrichment.