WHITE AUSTRALIA.

Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1282, 17 August 1922, Page 7

WHITE AUSTRALIA.

THE PEOPLE'S GOSPEL.

SYDNEY, August 2

Possibly to counteract the influence of the advocacy by the South Australian Premier (Sir Henry Bar well) and Mr Tom Walsh (secretary of the Seamen's Union) of coloured labour for Australia, the Prime Minister (Mr Hughes has just made at Bendigo a stirring defence of the policy. Mr Hughes declared that the White Australia policy was. the corner-stone of the temple in which they lived. Sir Henry Barwell was evidently labouring under a very great delusion. The committee of medical experts, which had specially studied settlement in the tropical parts, had reported that the indigenous white race could settle in any part. I}e never saw children of greater vitality than in Cairns:, and people who spoke albout the unsuitability of the tropical parts for the white races had never been there. Mr Walsh, secretary of the Seamen's Union, had lately been saying there were Kanaka boys who were good rebels, and might be admitted to his organisation. White Australia, said Mr Hughes, was a gospel. No man or woman who had had experience of countries where coloured labour had been admitted could doubt that Australia had chosen the better way. The introduc-

tion of coloured' labour meant the breeding of -a mongrel race, the polution of blood, and the watering down of qualities. They could pay too great 'a price for getting rich quickly. 'Housing, dietary, and clothing would have to be modified to suit tropical conditions. 'Sir Henry iß'arwell, since htel return, had stated that Maltese could live in the tropical parts. The Maltese were a white race, and if they could live there, so could Australians. A coloured population could not be segragated.