AUSTRALIA FOR THE AUSTRALIANS.
This watchword is the motto of "the national newspaper." It is also the
top note of all the Labour party screeches.
The national weakness of Australia it shows is instinctive. There is a
distrust of its own capability; self-reliance is totally absent; there
is no vital growth.
Never was the confirmation of such wretched defects in a people so
complete as in this confessional clamour, this lack of combating power
of pride of race.
Ostensibly it is to exclude inferiors, but it really argues against the
incoming of superiors. In striking contrast is it from the "Let 'em all
come" policy of Great Britain.
The screaming farce of the whole business, however, is the education
test immigrants are subjected to. They must be able to write a line of
some European language. Why, official figures show that there are in
Australia nearly 400,000 persons over the usual literate age who cannot
read and write.
"Australia for the Australians" is merely the cowardice shriek,
"Preservation for the incompetent." To exclude is to fear, disguised
howsoever it be.
Such widespread self-deceit as to its being anything else is impossible
of credence. It is the craven state of pampered workers that has
infected all classes in Australia. Periodically the country gets an
attack of delirium tremens, and then it sees the black man, the yellow
man, and variegated mankind generally with the upper hand.
And this is the hysterical way it then acts (vide a Brisbane paper):--
"ALIENS CAN'T LAND.
NOT EVEN TO BE BURIED.
A CUSTOMS DISCOVERY.
"A colored man named L. Peraira, second cook on the B.I.S.N. Company's
steamer Onipenta, now berthed at the A.U.S.N. Company's Norman Wharf,
died on board the vessel on Wednesday evening. Deceased had been
attended by a doctor, who certified that death was due to heart failure
caused by beri-beri. Under the circumstances the usual certificate was
issued, and arrangements made for the burial of the body. Particulars of
the death reached the Customs authorities in due course, and it is
stated they took exception to the landing of the body for interment, and
claimed that they were acting in conformity with the terms of the Alien
Immigration Restriction Act. By the time this attitude of the Customs
authorities became known, the undertaker had, it is said, completed his
work, and the body of the deceased had been interred. It now remains to
be seen what further action, if any, the authorities will take in the
matter."
In the meantime the rich tropical lands are given over to rank growths,
and are referred to for the purposes of borrowing and peroration as the
"great national resources of Australia."
When the Japanese squadron was in Australian waters, the Admiral
confided in the commanding officer of the Commonwealth forces that both
his country and China had envious eyes cast upon these self-same
tropical tracts. If it were not for the protection Great Britain affords
Australia there would be very little to stop either yellow Power from
materialising its envy. The Japanese squadron told Australia plainly
what it thought of its coastal defences just as an indication of all
this. Great precaution had been taken not to allow any camera parties
from the Japanese boats over the fortifications when in the port of
Melbourne. The Japs simply went and looked round casually. But when they
fired their farewell salute just without the "Heads" the squadron
hove-to at a spot where it could shell Queenscliff while not one gun in
those fortifications could be brought to bear on it. And just at present
we have the spectacle of a party of Japanese explorers encamped within
sight of Sydney's main fortifications.
When Australia works itself into a cold perspiration about the yellow
man, it, _ipso facto_, acknowledges the equality of him. The same with
the nigger who is, at the most, only wanted to do the lowest form of
tropical field work. But it is the custom of the demagogues in Australia
to talk about "the dignity of labour" without discrimination of any
kind.
For the Indian coolie, say, to be able to do given work at a less wage
than a white, at the same time doing it better, surely gives him some
claim to be considered in the economic scheme of things. Then take the
ethical point of view. The coolie lives a less brutal life than the
great proportion of northern white workers, and shows a greater margin
of savings out of a lesser wage. He is thus emphatically more desirable
than the aforesaid proportion of Australian white worker, which has no
margin out of wages after paying for beer, but usually has the next
week's wages mortgaged to the local publican.
For it is only the wreckage, the scum of the stream of life that drift
to tropical field labour. When I went among them I felt for the first
time the shame of the comparison of those of my own race with the South
Sea nigger.
Better fence the nigger into Australia and deport the white who has sunk
so low as to take coolie work to some country where they have not laws
against undesirable immigrants. Australia is the only country where the
white is consumed with that ignoble desire.
"But," shrieks the Labour agitator, "the Australian spends his money and
is better for the community."
Personally, I have scant sympathy and no admiration for the fat-fingered
publican and his brother (by trade ties) the brewer.
The same objection was taken to the coolie as is taken to the
Chinaman--viz., he is saving and economic. And if good citizenship is
merely a matter of spending money with the beer vendor--plainly a false
and untenable premise--then was the Kanaka of all "desirables" the most
to be desired. All he got out of the production of a ton of sugar,
valued at L20, roughly, was 30/-, and at that cost he created a
profitable avenue of energy for the white worker. He never took a
shilling back to his island.
The American is getting over "the dignity of labour" trouble by
machinery. The Australian hasn't the brains to do likewise, nor is he a
workman as reliable as a mechanical contrivance, because the latter
doesn't get drunk or strike on any pretext.