"THE DAY OF THE SAXON."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 1514, 9 November 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

"THE DAY OF THE SAXON."

WILL THE SAXON KEEP AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND WHITE. No. H. BY CAXOX MACMUEBAYw General Homer Lea in his book "The Day of the Saxon," deals in an interesting way with the problem of "The Saxon and the Pacific," and in it he emphasises what is not generally dreamed of in Australia or New Zealand, that India played an important part in the creation of the Saxon Empire in Australasia and that, it holds the central position in defence.

Had India not been where It is there •would nave resulted no British Empire. Only because India is British are the Mediterranean and Red Se««, Malta, Cyprus, Egypt, Suez, and coasts of Ana Minor under Saxon sovereignty. Were it not for India the British nation would have been confined to the United Kingdom and America. It was India that brought the Saxon, eastward, and it was the strategic position of India that made possible their Empire. India in a military sense is the Empire, and only go long m Saxon dominion over it continues unbroken and inviolate, will it be possible for the British Empire to endure.

There is no doubt that there are very few Australians or New who think that the defence of their countries is in any measure dependent upon the successful defence of India. General Lea comments on "tho persistence with which some nations remain blind to the everchanging character of their international association. Those conditions most, vital to the existence and greatness of nations are first affected;" and he adds words which need to bo carefully pondered: — "This rigidity of human ignorance increases in direct ratio as is augmented the control of the populace over the affairs of State."

General Lea. takes his own country, America, as the most striking example of the inability of a great democracy to see the things which belong to its peace.

Because of the swiftly-shifting phases of modern lite the military relationship of the United States to both Europe and Asia, has entirely changed within a single generation.; yet public opinion has not altered, and that nation has been reduced to a defenceless condition, • proportionately m old facts became modern delusions, and those old truth* new. lies.

' General Lea foresees trouble for his own country because it is unable to read the signs of the times; because of tho rigidity of the ignorance of public opinion upon the all-important question of national safety.

In the Pacific, scorned bv Saxon vanity or denied by Saxon ignorance, broods a new peril in a kind of sullen gentleness, not unlike the typhoon that alto, in the#e purple solitudes, awaits those who forget. The Republic'#-indif-ference to the development and potentiality of Japan, its submersion in the ebb and flux of party politic#, its heterogeneous racial elements, the supremacy of the individual over the welfare of the nation, and finally, the nation'* tragic scorn, of the soldier, predetermines tLe consummation of this fatal combat.

Turning to Australia and New Zealand he adds: — .

The people of Australia and New Zealand _In consideration of their control of publio ' affair#, are no exception to the above rule, and they have shown no greater prescience than tho people cf the United States in regard to the new military inter-relationship of nation# and its inherent dangers. Australasia has stopped short of what it wishes to accomplish—the preservation of their possessions to the Saxon race.

A white Australia, and a ' white NewZealand i* the. ideal we..have, net before ourselves. We have passed laws , ift Melbourne and Wellington jealously excluding the Chinaman and the Japanese. We are inclined to think that the making of such laws is practically all that is needed to secure this end. We have the policeman to enforce the law, and we have been so long accustomed to seeing the policeman's baton sufficient for the task, that we can hardly think that anything more is needed to arrest a Japanese fleet or army. General Lea says:-—

The security of Australasia rests entirely upon one condition—tho integrity and continuance of the British Empire. Concomitant with its defeat and disintegration Saxon dominion in the South Pacific comes to an end. With the loss of India tho Empire is shattered, and Saxon-Australasia will at that time, or in the final political military readjustment of the Pacific pass under the tenure of another race. The first principle of Australasian defence is the defence of India.

General Lea asks us to look at the facts, and points out that:

The relation of Saxon Australasia to the brown and yellow races of Asia is productive of two portentous factors:— Australasia is nearly as large as Europe, while its population is less than that of tho city of London. (2) Surrounding Australasia are Asian Empires with a population afproximately three times greater than, that of Europe. i

It is only needful to state these facts to see the appalling peril; and because of the more rapid increase of the brown and yellow races, the relative disproportion in numerical strength between the white races of Australasia and the coloured races in Asia will not decrease, but will assuredly be augmented as the years roll by- The hope of keeping these countries white through populating them adequately with white people in a reasonable time is wholly impossible. What chance have six millions of whites increasing very slowly to hold an almost empty continent against a thousand million of Chinese, Japanese, and Hindus, increasing so rapidly that they must find an outflow from their own lands? And what chance have they to hold these lands, when, as wo have seen, the brown man can build and man fleets not less efficient than any European fleet, and more armies on a scale sufficient to stagger the mighty Empire of Russia? The sooner we look the facta straight in the face the better. There is no possible hope for Australia and New Zealand to keep out the brown man to-day, or the yellow man to-morrow, if the Empire is shattered and we ar.e left to our own resources. General Lea says:—

Australasia is not fixed, in the 6enso of racial or national security, upon the bed of its ooean. It i* fixed only so long as it is anchored to the British Empire. Whenever these chains are broken it is adrift like a derelict upon a sea of storm.

But we may say, Australia and New Zealand are training their boys to bear arms; Australia is building cruisers and New Zealand has presented to tho Mother Country a battle-cruiser. General Lea's opinion of what we are doing is worth noting:—

The effort! now being made for Australasian tic* fence form an. immaterial factor in the ultimate struggle for national survival. They belong to world conditions that, no longer exist. Australia and New Zealand are isolated from Europe, America and Africa, and only in a less degree from Asia. Because of the purely insular character of Australasia its permanent defence must bo naval. There is no country in the world whoso geographical features make conquest so easy as Australia once the command of the sea is lost. To attempt to retain command of the sea by any fleet that Australia can build is simply futile. It is possible only to a united British Empire. A land defence of Australia is impossible, because of the overwhelming numbers of trained soldiers that .a power like Japan to-day, or China to-morrow could pour into it if the command of the sea was lost. There are only two portions of Australia where any real attempt at defence could be made, at Sydney and Melbourne, for there only is there a sufficient population to provide men for any semblance of a struggle. To a Power like Japan in command of the sea, and with a large and wellequipped army of the bravest soldiers in the world, the rest of Australia would fall into their hands, like a ripened pear falls to the ground. Sydney and Melbourne cut off from the world by the Japanese fleet would be unable to resist very long, As nine-tentKs of the population of Australia is within e short distance of the coast its vulnerability to naval attack ip apparent*

It is thui fatality, the restriction of Australia s population to coast regions, that is the determine ate factor in the impossibility of prolonged land defence against a nation in control of the ocean. The sea-board population of Australia' is in ft mnitary sense very different from that of other countries. It is not alone the beginning ol the State'* population; it is the beginning and the end. , Australia, while a continent, is «Uo an atoll; without, tho ocean; within, the desert. Both the eea and the .desert, a* regard* military calculations, identical. To retreat towards the ocean in control of the enemy is disaster: to flee to tie desert is death. what nature gave the Boers It has denied Australia, Under 'existing conditions the only P 08 * sible defence of, Australasia, for the fate of New Zealand is involved in the. fate of Australia, lies in our retaining control of the sea that control can only he maintained by an overwhelming Imperial navy. General Lea teaches a lesson that Australasia needs to learn, when he writes: —

The most dangerous belief that ersr laid hold of the Saxon race, is the delusion, that by defending separately their segregated portions of the Empire they are able to defend the whole; whereas it is only true that by the defence of the Empire, in its concrete character, are tho components protected.

It is veiy important, if the British ideal of a white Australia and a white New Zealand is to bo realised, that we should recognise it can only be so realised by Imperial solidarity. A unified Empire, sharing equally in the sacrifices needed for safety, able to bring the whole force of the Empire to the aefenco of any portion that is attacked, will survive and continue its -mission of civilisation in the world.

But will the individualism of the modern British democracies ever, even in the face oi overwhelming danger, consent to put national safety before money-making, or pleasure seeking, or the freedom of the mdividual to do what he likes? General Lea greatly doubts it. The solemn truth is that democracy is on its trial and does not know it or the awful penalty of failure. The Old Book tells us of a young man who wanted to do what he liked, and who went and did it. He had what ho called a good time for a while; but. the time caire when he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did cat and no man gave unto him. The individualism of modem Australian and New Zealand democracies may lead them into a similar plight when the little brown man arrives in Melbourne and Sydney, in Auckland and Wellington. It will then be understood that defence was not the concern of only Tommy Atkins and Jack Tar; and that the national safety would have been cheaply purchased by the sacrifice of motor cars and golf links, and the rendering of personal service by land and sea. In the matter of patriotism, if the well-to-do give a good lead, the workingman will not fail to make sacrifices as real and great for his country.

And yet a leading citizen, whose business it is to understand tho mind of the community, recently stated that any Government which ventured to propose that New Zealand or Australia should share with the Mother Country in proportion to population the burden of naval defence would be swept out of office in twentylour hours. This penny-wise and poundfoolish policy may well be contrasted with tho policy of the Japanese Empire.

Hero (write# General Lea) the vain and ignorant populace has no place in the conduct of tho affairs of the nation, and the loud noise* of harassing multitude* carry no intimidation into the council chambers of the State. (Silently, with- ' Out haste, with an intentnets which is conscious of neither hesitation nor diversion, this militant empire moves across the sea. The nation vanishes. It baa beep, metamorphosed into a soldier. Thia soldier is the genius of the nation. He has elevated martyrdom to heroism, and heroism to duty. If democratic individualism, had sway in Germany, Russia and Japan, as it has in Great Britain in New Zealand and Australia,: then no/ danger to our national existence would follow from our democratic asiprations— when over against our individualistic selfishness /we ■ < have the readiness of tho Japanese, to sacrifice; self' in the interests of the State, then, when the clash comes, as come it will in the day that the British fleet is .no longer supreme, the democracies of Australasia will be

dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel. If a democratic Government fails to secure the safety of a nation then it is the worst of all Governments.

To preach unpalatable truths is usually wasting one's breath; but as Jonah Etched not in vain to Nineveh, so mayby the mercy of God the voices of erts and of Lea may bo heard in the midst of the mad pursuit of gain and pleasure of petty bickerings and jealous strifes which characterise the Saxon democracies of to-day.

Our democracy may yet justify it-self if, seeing the peril, it is capable of strenuous united effort, and whole-hearted readiness to make any sacrifice for the ideal of a white Australia and New Zealand, and thus secure that the Day of the Saxon in these lands may bo for all time. [No. 1. Appeared on page 4 of last week's eupplomcnt.]