[Editor: This is a chapter from the novel The Coloured Conquest (1904) by “Rata” (Thomas Richard Roydhouse).]
Chapter XIV.
The fair lily colonies. — The blow that crushed me.
Yoko’s vengeance!
He was unable to save me from that entirely.
Mabel is lost to me.
Lost for ever!
Yoko arrived from New Caledonia a fortnight after the fleet, and asked the Admiral that he might have Mabel for his slave.
Permission was granted.
But first he had to find Mabel, and in the meantime I sought out Tuksuma and craved his intercession.
It was easy enough. The Admiral at once decided against Yoko, and remained firm when the Major appealed.
I was waiting in the portico of the Admiral’s residence when Yoko came out after receiving the decision.
His face told me the tale as I wanted to be told.
My heart leapt with joy. His rage-distorted features made me laugh.
He drew his sword, and would have cut me down but for Tuksuma, who stood beside me.
“How dare you!” demanded Taksuma. “You know that my friend is to-day appointed to a special position on the Admiral’s staff, and his position is therefore the equal of yours.”
Taksuma was of superior caste, or Yoko would, I believe, have taken his life where he stood.
As it was he forced himself to smile. An evil smile, as of one who would revel in devilry.
“I apologise to Mr. Danton,” he said; “but,” he added, “I don’t think he need look so pleased at my discomfiture. When he knows all he may feel as I do now. The blood feud between us may well die; the cause has been removed. Good-day.”
He was polite, but the fires of the hell blazing in his bosom gleamed through his eyes.
“I don’t quite understand what he means by ‘when I know all,’” I said, turning to Taksuma; “perhaps you can tell me?”
Taksuma was silent for a moment; then he said:
“Well, you’ve got to know, old chap, and I may as well tell you — others will soon do so.
“As you are aware everything in connection with this occupation was thrashed out long ago. Every arrangement was made. Some of the officers who had visited Australia with the squadron before the war with Russia commenced had actually selected their Australian wives, and had them allotted.”
“The ladies, of course, knew nothing of this,” I said.
“Well, how could they?” he replied. “It was known only among the officers and by the Admiral who is now in command here as Governor.
“It was understood that the officers would have their pick of the beauties of Australia, priority of choice to be according to rank, and each officer to have only one — that is, only one of the superior beauties.”
He paused and lit a cigarette. Apparently he did not relish the conversation.
“Well?” I said.
“Well,” he repeated, “the plan of settlement took force after this selection, and this is what it is necessary for me to explain.”
He paused again; his cigarette did not seem to draw well.
“By the plan of settlement,” he went on presently, “the White people become the servants of the Japanese. They receive no pay — only clothing and food. All branches of labour are assessed at a certain value, however, instead of paying individual labourers the hirers pay the wages into the Treasury. This prevents men grabbing more labour than they need, and the money is used in opening up the country.”
I knew all this, and was impatient for him to enlighten me further. He was talking all round the question.
“It was also arranged in Australia, as in other parts of the world where the people of the country are White, that there should be no marrying among them. It was decided that reproduction should be confined to the Coloured invaders — I put it this way because in England and on the Continent there are Indians as well as Japanese in the invading forces.”
“But some of these are taking White wives!”
“Just so! But no White men are taking wives, and the half-caste children will count with the Coloured.”
There was again a pause while he lit another cigarette.
“Even to this, though, there are exceptions,” he said presently. “Some White men and women will marry each other.
“The fairest and most beautiful women and the fairest and most handsome men will be mated by the Beauty Committee appointed by the Admiral-Governor. These couples will be provided for in the Fair Lily Colonies, as the Admiral calls them, and several of which are now ready for occupancy.”
“You mean,” I said, “That this Beauty Committee will decide what White men and women shall pair?”
“Precisely.”
“And the object?”
“To produce the most beautiful women the world has ever known.”
“And the most beautiful men, too?”
‘‘Of course! Half of the women thus brought into existence will be the wives of the officers; others will go into new Fair Lily Colonies with the pick of the men, or, if not good-looking enough, go to work. All women who are not beautiful will be at work in the factories and elsewhere.”
I looked at him speechless. A horrible fear was coming into my mind, and overwhelming it.
“The children will be removed from the parents in the Fair Lily Colonies when two years old,” he continued. “That is the plan. They will be carefully trained apart from the common people — will be isolated, in fact, till the girls are 16 and the men 21. The nobles and officers will then select their wives, and the remaining girls will be disposed of as I have said. You understand it now?”
I nodded.
“There was always a lot of talk about the declining birthrate in Australia,” he said; “well, it will decline altogether now, so far as Europeans are concerned. The children born of the White parents will never mix with the world, as I have explained to you; therefore, the only children that will for the future enter into calculations, so far as Australia is concerned, are the Brown children and half-castes.
“So,” flicking the ash from his cigarette, “I think it is clear to you that every precaution has been taken to secure the dominance of a Coloured race in Australia — the ‘little Brown men,’ you know,” with a laugh.
“Tell, me,” I said, “when will the selection for these Fair Lily Colonies be made?”
My voice shook; indeed, I trembled all over.
I felt that I was about to receive a blow I could not guard against.
“The selections have been made for eight,” he said, “accommodating 800 couples. There will be no more formed at present.”
“And White men are not allowed to marry White women outside these colonies?”
“Nor in them. I have told you the couples are selected — after very careful consideration, too.”
“Taksuma, you are my friend!”
“I am,” he said, grasping my hand.
“Then get me into one of these colonies! No; do not misunderstand me. I want to marry the girl I love and who loves me. And there is no other way.”
“There is not that way. I saved Miss Graham from Yoko for you. I saved her from a Brown husband, but I could not save her from the Fair Lily Colony. She is fair enough and very beautiful.”
“Yes! Yes!” I cried, “but what of me! You can arrange that I be selected with her — as her husband — mate — call it what you like.”
“I could not,” he said, coldly. “Do not do me the injustice of thinking I did not try. But your hair is nearly black, and that disqualifies you for a Colony.
“Believe me, old chum, I have done the best I could, and the best was to get you a staff appointment — the only White man not in a servile position — and secure a gentleman for Miss Graham’s mate.”
“The selection is made, then? God!”
“It is.”
“Who is the man?”
“Lieutenant Thomas.”
I flung myself on the grass plot, and dug my fingers into the earth, and prayed that I might die.
Taksuma stood and watched me, and at length succeeded in leading me away.
I was not to die just then. For years I was to taste the bitterness of the cup I had asked for and received that day.
Source:
Rata, The Coloured Conquest, Sydney (NSW): N.S.W. Bookstall Co., 1904, pp. 111-116
Editor’s notes:
the Continent = (in a British context or from a British viewpoint) the continent of Europe (i.e. excluding the British Isles)
[Editor: Changed “there are Indian as well as Japanese” to “there are Indians as well as Japanese”.]
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