[Editor: This article, regarding White Australia, Joseph Chamberlain (the UK’s Secretary of State for the Colonies), and the British government’s rejection of the Sugar Works Guarantee Act Amendment Bill 1901 (Qld.), was published in The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 22 June 1901.]
The Jap. on the horizon.
A few weeks ago news reached Australia that the British Government had vetoed the Queensland Act providing that State aid should be given to certain sugar mills with the condition that no colored labor should be employed therein — in other words, that the Government, as the party who found the money, and was, therefore, the virtual employer, claimed the right, like any other employer, to engage only white workers if it felt that way inclined. Now an explanation comes by cable:
Mr. J. Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in the House of Commons last night, in answer to a question as to the reason of the Royal assent being refused to the passing of the Queensland Sugar Works Guarantee Act Amending Bill, said that the Imperial Government considered that the Queensland Bill proceeded on objectionable grounds. The principle of the policy of disqualification was based solely on the place of origin of colored labor, and excluded the Indian subjects of Great Britain solely for the difference of race and color. Moreover, the disqualification was offensive to the Japanese, who were placed in the category of Asiatics subject to the bill regardless of their civilisation.
What a clumsy lie! Australia doesn’t care whether the Asiatic was born in Asia or in Sheol. It doesn’t care whether he is black, or brown, or bright-green with red feet and a blue stripe down the back. So far from excluding the Asiatic solely on account of his race and color, neither his race nor his color have anything to do with the matter.
Australia objects to the whole Asiatic, African and Kanaka tribe because they work for wages on which only a person far lower in the scale of civilisation than the white Australian can live, therefore, where they are numerous, the white man, in order to get work, has to come down to their wage level, and, in consequence, to their civilisation-level. It objects to them because they introduce a lower civilisation.
It objects because they intermarry with white women, and thereby lower the white type, and because they have already created the beginnings of a mongrel race, that has many of the vices of both its parents and few of the virtues of either. If Judas Chamberlain can find a black, or brown, or yellow race, in Asia or Africa, that has as high a standard of civilisation and intelligence as the whites, that is as progressive as the whites, as brave, as sturdy, as good nation-making material, and that can intermarry with the whites without the mixed progeny showing signs of deterioration, that race is welcome in Australia regardless of color.
If Joseph Chamberlain said, as reported by cable, that it was proposed, in Queensland or any other part of Australia, to put disabilities on anyone because of his color, then Joseph Chamberlain is shamelessly perverting facts. If he said, as reported by cable, that it was proposed to put disabilities on anyone by reason of the place of his birth, then Joseph Chamberlain is lying over once more.
The Australian would sooner be mulatto or Eurasian than white — if the mulatto and Eurasian were a better man than the white.
If the Englishman in India will cease to regard the native as an inferior; if he will look upon the Eurasian as an equal and treat him as such; if, in an Empire which is 90 per cent. nigger, he will let the black man have his fair share of such billets as that of Viceroy of India, Commander-in-Chief (of the army which is furnished by the mostly-nigger empire), colonial Governor, &c.; if he will get into such a frame of mind that Queen Victoria could have married an Indian rajah and given a half-caste heir to the British throne without causing any objection or disturbance — then Joseph Chamberlain will have a right to say things.
If Britain’s Kipling will cease to kipple derisively about the half-bred race which forms the outermost fringe of the European population in India, and other English writers will mitigate their scorn about the mongrel peoples of the Levant — the “scum of the Levant,” as they are often called — with the blood of Greece, Syria, Egypt, the Archipelago and possibly of Italy in their veins, then Joseph Chamberlain may look less of a liar and a smaller amount of a fool.
If the same Joseph who prates of Japanese “civilisation” as entitling the people of Japan to enter Australia on equal terms, will show that he believes there is a real Japanese civilisation by seriously considering the question of a royal intermarriage with the Japanese reigning House, then he will also look a more desirable character.
Britain wants badly to cement its alliance with Japan. British royalties are many, and desirable alliances for them are not always easy. And Joseph C. holds that the ordinary working Jap is a civilised person whom the ordinary working Australian has no cause to regard otherwise than as a desirable mate and brother. Let him consider how long his billet would last, and how long he would be in a position to find desirable jobs for his relatives, if he promoted a marriage between a royal Jap and a royal Briton. Let him propose it to Edward VII., and then let them size-up their joint opinion about Japanese civilisation.
The Englishman has a profound scorn for colored races, even when he is only an intruder in the colored man’s country. He believes in Parliamentary Government, but in every colony or possession where the black population is in the majority he has either so fixed the franchise that Parliamentary power is reserved to the white minority, or else got over the difficulty by having no Parliamentary authority at all.
If the colored man started to invade Britain on a large scale, and cut wages there, and aggravate the people whose votes keep Joseph Chamberlain in office, this scorn would probably develop into active hatred. The Briton is strong upon the right of the colored British subject to travel within the empire wheresoever he pleases; as that colored fellow-subject is debarred by the rigorous climate from swamping the United Kingdom, that is just the sort of right that the Briton would be likely to be strong upon.
The Australian, who is liable to be swamped, doesn’t see where the black man’s right to travel all over the empire comes in, but he is shocked to some extent at the high-handed tyranny of the Chamberlain gang in refusing the black man the inalienable privilege of political freedom and Responsible Government. Still, when Chamberlain and co. explain that circumstances at their end make it imperative to deprive nine-tenths of the King’s subjects of political freedom, Australia is quite prepared to let it go at that. Equally urgent circumstances at this end make it imperative to deprive the black man of his alleged right to free locomotion throughout the Empire, but Chamberlain and co. refuse to see it. A fair inference seems to be that Chamberlain and co. are an aggregate hypocrite as well as an aggregate perverter of the truth.
It is impossible to have a large colored alien population in the midst of a white population without a half-caste population growing up between the two. India proves that; would prove it much more conclusively only the white population isn’t large enough to be a very extensive parent to the Eurasian mongrel.
Spanish and Portuguese America show it. The United States show it. Queensland shows it already to an alarming extent. And Australia thinks highly enough of its British and Irish descent to feel a desire to keep the race pure. This may be a mistake, of course. It may be that the British race isn’t worth keeping pure. Joseph Chamberlain evidently thinks so, and certainly if all the British race was like Joseph its preservation would be very doubtful policy.
When there were no restrictions upon the influx of Asiatic immigration it flowed into Australia at a rate which, if it had not been checked, would have monstrously adulterated the scanty white population of this country. Between 1881 and 1891 the half-caste Chinese in Victoria increased by 500 per cent., while the white Victorians increased by 32 per cent. But for the early restrictions put on the Chinese influx, whereby there were not enough Chinese fathers to go round, Victoria would apparently be almost a wholly mongrel State by this time — and Victoria is in a better position than the other mainland States. A continent with only 4,000,000 white inhabitants, and with 800,000,000 colored people at its back door, is easily mongrelised, unless it shuts that back door hard.
Australia doesn’t want to be mongrel. It values its British descent a great deal more highly than does Renegade Joe of Birmingham. And if, through Britain’s ignorant and brutally-selfish course of action, it ultimately loses its white status to a great extent, then the Briton will be the first to jeer at it for doing so, just as he jeers at the Eurasian mongrel and the Levantine.
And yet Australia doesn’t care a straw for mere whiteness, and when Joseph Chamberlain says that it objects to any race because of its color or birthplace, then Joseph Chamberlain is lying. The fact that Joseph Chamberlain is lying can’t be too strongly impressed.
What Australia values is the fact that the white man leads the world in almost everything. If Chamberlain can show a black or brown race with higher civilisation, and higher mental capacity, and a greater ability to lead the world, than the white, then Australia wants to import 10 millions of that race as soon as possible. But there is no such race. The Japanese is probably the nearest approach to it, but even he doesn’t fill the bill.
If Britain is shocked at Australia’s desire to maintain its pure European descent, then Britain doesn’t know the value of its own white status, and is only fit to be a nigger, and a very poor kind of nigger at that.
Source:
The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 22 June 1901, p. 6
Editor’s notes:
The correct title of the “Sugar Works Guarantee Act Amending Bill”, referred to in this article, was the Sugar Works Guarantee Act Amendment Bill (i.e. with the word “Amendment”, not “Amending”).
&c. = an alternative form of “etc.”: an abbreviation of “et cetera” (also spelt “etcetera”), a Latin term (“et” meaning “and”, “cetera” meaning “the rest”) which is translated as “and the rest (of such things)”, used in English to mean “and other similar things”, “other unspecified things of the same class”, “and so forth”
Archipelago = (in the context of the eastern Mediterranean Sea) the Greek Archipelago, also known as the Aegean Islands, consisting of the Northeastern Aegean Islands, Euboea, Sporades (Northern Sporades), Cyclades, Saronic Islands, Dodecanese (Southern Sporades), and Crete
See: 1) Stefania Niakarou-Simou, “The Greek Islands: Dodecanese and Northeast Aegean”, Destinations Magazine, 9 October 2017
2) “Aegean Islands”, Wikipedia
Asiatic = of or relating to Asia; someone whose ethnic background is from Asia, especially Eastern Asia; an Asian person, an Oriental person
bill = a proposed law, or a proposed amendment to an existing law
See: “Bill (law)”, Wikipedia
billet = (slang) job, a position of employment; occupation
cable = electrical telegraph cable, which was used to send telegrams, being the fastest means of communication in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century (cable communications were greatly assisted by the development of Morse code in the 1830s and 1840s)
See: 1) “Electrical telegraph”, Wikipedia
2) “Submarine communications cable”, Wikipedia
3) “Transatlantic communications cable”, Wikipedia
co. = an abbreviation of “company” (usually regarding a commercial business); (in a general sense) a company of people (a gathering, group, or loose association of people), persons associated with or allied with someone (e.g. Chamberlain and co.)
Edward VII. = King Edward VII of the United Kingdom; he was born at Buckingham Palace, London (England), in 1841, ascended to the throne in 1901 (he remained King until his death), and died at Buckingham Palace in 1910
See: “Edward VII”, Wikipedia
Eurasian = a mixed-race person of European and Asian ancestry; of or relating to Eurasia (Europe and Asia)
franchise = the right of adult citizens to vote in political elections and referendums
half-caste = someone whose parents are of two different racial backgrounds; a mixed-race person, someone of mixed racial descent (in modern times, “half-caste” is generally considered to be a derogatory term)
Jap = an abbreviation of “Japanese”; of or relating to Japan or its people; a Japanese person (can be used in a singular sense to refer to an individual Japanese person, as well as in a collective sense to refer to Japanese people in general, or to a group or organisation of Japanese people); someone whose ethnic background is from Japan; something that is Japanese in origin or style
Jap. = [see: Jap]
J. Chamberlain = [see: Joseph Chamberlain]
Joseph C. = [see: Joseph Chamberlain]
Joseph Chamberlain = Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), British politician; he was born in Camberwell (Surrey, England) in 1836, served as the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for the Colonies (1895-1903), and died in Birmingham (England) in 1914
See: “Joseph Chamberlain”, Wikipedia
Judas Chamberlain = a reference to Joseph Chamberlain as a betrayer (the first name being taken from Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus Christ) [see: Joseph Chamberlain]
Kipling = Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), a British poet and writer; he was born in Bombay (India) to British parents, with the family subsequently moving to England when he was five years old; was particularly well-known for his children’s stories in The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book; he died in Fitzrovia (London, England) in 1936
See: “Rudyard Kipling”, Wikipedia
the Levant = the countries and islands of the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, including some of the neighbouring lands near to the east (from the French “lever”, meaning “to rise”, regarding the sunrise, and therefore referring to the east); historically referring to the eastern Mediterranean lands, from Greece to Egypt, but in modern times usually confined to the lands of the far eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel, as well as neighbouring Jordon and Iraq); (archaic) to abscond, bolt, or run away, in a hurried, secret, or unexpected manner, especially so as to avoid paying debts (possibly related to the French expression “faire voile en Levant”, meaning “set sail for the Levant” or “to sail eastward”, i.e. to flee to the east)
See: “Levant”, Wikipedia
Levantine = of or relating to the Levant or its people; a person from the Levant; someone whose ethnic background is from the Levant; something that originates from the Levant or is in the style of something from the Levant [see: the Levant]
locomotion = movement, motion; the act of moving from one place to another; the ability to move from one place to another; self-powered motion by which an organism moves from one place to another, using methods such as crawling, flying, jumping, rolling, running, skipping, swimming, or walking
mulatto = someone who has a black parent and a white parent; someone whose parents are of mixed black and white racial backgrounds; a mixed-race person of black and white racial descent; someone of mixed racial ancestry
nigger = a black person; someone of black African racial background; in an historical Australian context, “nigger” could refer to 1) an Australian Aborigine, 2) a Pacific Islander, also known as a kanaka, 3) someone of black African racial origin, also known as a negro, or 4) someone of black Central Asian racial origin, such as people from India (“nigger” is usually regarded as a derogatory term, except that it was often used as a neutral term in historical practice, and except when used by or between people of a black racial background)
per cent. = an abbreviation of “per centum” (Latin, meaning “by a hundred”), i.e. an amount, number, or ratio expressed as a fraction of 100; also rendered as “per cent” (without a full stop), “percent”, “pct”, “pc”, “p/c”, or “%” (per cent sign)
prate = to talk at length on trivial matters; idle or foolish talk; excessive and pointless talk; to chatter, waffle, witter, or prattle
progeny = children; descendants, offspring; someone’s descendants (as a collective whole); a result, an outcome, something that originates or results from something else (such as a result of a creative effort, a work practice, an idea, or the establishment of an ideology)
Queen Victoria = Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom; she was born in Kensington Palace, London (England), in 1819, ascended to the throne in 1837 (she remained Queen until her death), and died at the royal residence in East Cowes (Isle of Wight, UK) in 1901
See: 1) “Victoria: queen of United Kingdom”,
2) “Victoria (r. 1837-1901)”, The Royal Family (UK)
3) “Queen Victoria”, Wikipedia
race = nationality; people of a particular national or ethnic origin (distinct from the historical and/or common usage of “race” referring to a sub-species of humans, such as Caucasians, Mongoloids, and Negroids, or Europeans, Asians, and Africans)
rajah = a chief, dignitary, prince, or ruler in India; an honorary title bestowed upon Hindus in India; a chief, prince, or ruler in Borneo, Java, Malaya, etc.; a minor chief or dignitary
Renegade Joe of Birmingham = Joseph Chamberlain [see: Joseph Chamberlain]
Sheol = a term commonly used as a substitute for saying “hell” (as “hell” was regarded as bad language, when used outside of its proper context); sheol was a term, used in the Old Testament of the Bible, which is translated as “grave”, “pit”, or “abode of the dead”
[Editor: Changed “Is Joseph Chamberlain said” to “If Joseph Chamberlain said”.]
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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