[Editor: This review of The Coloured Conquest (1904) was published in The Australian Star (Sydney, NSW), 9 August 1904.]
“The Coloured Conquest.”
The author of a little book, which has been inspired by the Russo-Japanese war, and which bears the title quoted above, has made a remarkable contribution to sensationalism. In fact he may be said to have laid his sensationalism on with a trowel.
“The Coloured Conquest,” by Rata, published by the New South Wales Book Stall Co., indeed pictures a time in the very near future when the coloured races will dominate the world. Japan is to be the great organiser of these victories over the whites. The warriors from the Land of the Rising Sun are represented as waking up the teeming millions of the East to the cry of Asia for the Asiatics.
These tremendous forces are then supposed to precipitate themselves on Europe. Australia is only a mouthful for them. They carry their irresistible strength in all directions, both by land and sea. The great Republic of the West shares the fate of Old Europe, and has to bow to the authority of the dark-skinned people. The Caucasian is played out in the most miserable fashion. It is an Australian who is supposed to tell the story of this awful decline and fall of the nations who had so long regarded themselves as the very salt of the earth.
Rata’s story, amidst its wild extravagance, suggests a good many things, which are certainly not altogether impossible. It is eminently a readable narrative.
Source:
The Australian Star (Sydney, NSW), 9 August 1904, p. 3
Editor’s notes:
Caucasian = of or relating to the Caucasian race (also known as the European race or white race); a major classification in the historical and/or common usage of “race” referring to a sub-species of humans, including Caucasians (also known as Europeans or whites), Mongoloids (also known as Asians or yellows), and Negroids (also known as Africans or blacks)
See: “Caucasian race”, Wikipedia
the great Republic of the West = the United States of America
played out = tired, drained, exhausted, fatigued, weary, worn out; lacking effectiveness, energy, freshness, pep, power, or strength
Russo-Japanese war = (1904-1905) a war fought between the Russian Empire and the Japanese Empire
See: “Russo-Japanese War”, Wikipedia
[Editor: Changed “Japan is to be great organiser” to “Japan is to be the great organiser”.]
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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