[Editor: This article, regarding a speech made by Donald Baker (Bishop of Bendigo), with commentary pertaining to the White Australia Policy, was published in The Daily Mail (Brisbane, Qld.), 20 September 1924.]
White Australia
The Christian aspect
The Right Rev. Donald Baker, M.A., Bishop of Bendigo, in his address to the diocesan synod, made reference to the “White Australia” question and asked was it a Christian ideal, or simply a dog-in-the-manger one. He said it was strongly felt that any policy other than that of white Australia would, in the long run, result in handing over Australia to the coloured races.
He quoted Mr. Lothrop Stoddard, who said: “When the enormous outward thrust of coloured population-pressure bursts into a white land, it cannot let live, but automatically crushes the white man out; first the white labourer, then the white merchant, lastly the white aristocrat, until every vestige of white has gone from the land for ever. Nowhere, absolutely nowhere, can white labour compete on equal terms with coloured immigrant labour.”
The Bishop referred to the supreme importance and necessity of keeping the race pure, and to the widespread feeling that indiscriminate mixing of blood is bad. He said: “One cannot visit a semi-black State in America without the thought crossing one’s mind that the Creator never intended such a clash of colour. And such thoughts will be strengthened tenfold if the traveller goes to Central America, where may be found in one and the same person a mixture of perhaps Spanish, Negro, Indian, and Chinese blood. With all charity, the result could not be described as other than degenerate.
“No, the Creator, had some wise purpose when He made us as He did, differing as we do in colour, mentality, and temperament; and the instinct which most of us have against the indiscriminate mixture of race and colour, must surely come from Him. The wish to keep our race pure may well be founded on the two-fold fact that God has made us with different colours and characteristics, and that experience shows that promiscuous miscegenation is a mistake and detrimental to the progress of humanity.”
The Bishop concluded by saying, “I can only say that the more I think of what would probably follow were Australia not to be kept white, the more it seems to me that there is nothing inherently un-Christian in the policy; while on the other hand, experience seems to show that promiscuous miscegenation is contrary to God’s plan.”
Source:
The Daily Mail (Brisbane, Qld.), 20 September 1924, p. 15
Editor’s notes:
Creator = in a religious context, and capitalized, a reference to God
Donald Baker = Donald Baker (1882-1968), clergyman; he was born in Portsmouth (England) in 1882, was ordained in Sydney (in the Church of England) in 1905, was Bishop of Bendigo (1920-1938), principal of Ridley College (1938-1953) in Melbourne (Vic.), and died in Camberwell (Vic.) in 1968
See: 1) “Mainly about people”, The Australian Church Record (Sydney, NSW), 11 July 1968, p. 8, column 2
2) “Donald Baker (bishop)”, Wikipedia
He = in a religious context, and capitalized, a reference to God or Jesus Christ
Him = in a religious context, and capitalized, a reference to God or Jesus Christ
M.A. = Master of Arts (a master’s degree awarded by universities, usually given for studies in the area of the humanities and social sciences)
Rev. = an abbreviation of “Reverend” (a title given to a minister of a church, a priest, a member of the clergy)
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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