A WHITE EMPIRE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1717, 25 January 1905, Page 15

A WHITE EMPIRE

‘•The Shadow.’’ By Lionel Terry- Wilson and Horton, printers, Auckland. Private edition.)

The author of this impassioned appeal to the British people on the subject of the evil results of coloured alien immigration informs his readers that his work is the outcome of many years of personal, research in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, the United States of ■America and other parts of the world. “In order to obtain facts/’ he says, “I have visited slums, worked side by side with aliens of various nationalities in stone quarries, coal mines, fruit plantations, sawmills, and many other Indus trial enterprises; I have studied the methods of living and general characteristics of savage races, and the effects produced upon them by civilisation; in short, I have done everything that I considered necessary to acquaint myself with my subject.” In an “Introduction” of twelve pages, from which the foregoing words are quoted, Mr Terry seeks to establish the theses —That the labouring classes constitute the very life of the British Empire; that- it is vitally important that these classes should he kept wholly white ; that the British Empire is violating the laws of nature; and unless swift measures bo taken to exclude and eradicate the alien element, the British Empire must die. The Ghineso and Japanese immigration info Canada, and the Chinese labour so largely employed in the Transvaal mines supply him with the most striking examples of the irreparable wrong inflicted on the Empire by crushing out white labour. All this and a good deal more is but the prelude to a poem entitled “The Shadow, A.D. 2000: A Condemnation and a Prophecy,” which is in turn followed by another set of verses —“To the King: A,n Exhortation.” There is in the verses a good display of poetic fervour and declamatory language, almost in the. stylo of an ancient Hebrew prophet denouncing the sins of his country and sorrowfully predicting the dire consequences of the transgressions. Good as Mr Terry’s verses are, we think his prose is much better, and the facts and considerations urged by liim arc fitted to exert a powerful influence on public opinion. As a sample of his poetic gift, we quote the following “Prayer,” which appears on the inside title page:—

When the great Gold God, advancing, shall inherit all the earth, When our country shall be governed by the slave. When love and truth and honour shall be strangled at their birth, And the noblest shall have won the felon’s grave;

When our land shall be polluted by the outcast of the earth, When corruption rageth rampart at its roots; When our leaders shun their duty for the halls of reckless mirth, And blended blood shall bear its shameful fruit;

When cur land shall seek defenders ’midst an alien kith and kin, And shall Avrithe beneath a scourge of civil strife, When a mighty hybrid nation shall have Avon the wage of sin,— Spare üb, O God, the bitter curse of life!

The book lias on its front cover the picture of a malevolent-looking Asiatic, 'hovering in dark clouds over London, with a drawn sword in his hand. It is a little peculiar that this work should he issued in NeAv Zealand, Avhere less danger threatens from the coloured alien than in almost any other colony. This is, however, merely a “private edition,” probably p inn ted to secure the copyright; and it may be inferred that the object is to have large editions circulated at Home, as well as in Australia, Canada and South Africa. “The Shadow,” if placed in the hands of the toiling British millions, would open their eyes to the magnitude of the danger which the author sees in coloured alien labour.