DOES AUSTRALIA DISTRUST BRITAIN ?

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13744, 5 September 1908, Page 5

DOES AUSTRALIA DISTRUST BRITAIN ?

FEARS DISCOUNTED. By. Electric Telegraph. — Copyright. LONDON, Sept. 4. The Times' Melbourne correspondent, referring to the American newspapers' suggestion that Australians distrust Britain's will or power to'protoct her against possible hostilities, says*: "I say emphatically that I hoard no such suggestion, even in quarters where- i's might have been expected." - He adds : "Britain may be confident. thero is no fooling of the kind at all." The AVestminster Gazette says that while Australia welcomes the white fleet, sympathises with the American difficulties pn tho Pacific Coast and shares a dt-sire to exclude Asiatic aliens, Australia knows that the Imperial Government must act as a trustee of tho Empire. Howevor much slip dislikes, tho Japanese alliance on sentimental grounds. Australia cannot say tho alliance has injured her. Japan also knows that a British colony (vide South Africa> has the fullest 'rights to exclude' foreigners, and eveV British subjects. Now York newspapers do\ibt whether tho anti-Japanese feelin<*_n Australasia is permanent or sincere, and whether the obvious difficulties of a Japanese attaclt upon her' coasts will not ultimately dispel Australian fears. The Times remarks tnat Japan's programme of retrenchment 11 and tho post ponement of the -Exhibition is a clear indication of her determination to develop thecountrv's economic strength, ancTshoufcl allay \o the extent* 6T50 por cent, the troinours of imaginative persons regarding the supposed bellicose aspiration's of Japan.