[Editor: This article, regarding the issue of conscription during the First World War (1914-1918) and its connection to the White Australia Policy, was published in The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW), 17 December 1917.]
White Australia
Vote “Yes”
Australia’s stake in the war
One of the most amazing misstatements of the opponents of the Government proposals is that the White Australia policy will be destroyed if the referendum is carried.
The statement involves a gross misrepresentation.
The people of Australia would never tolerate the abrogation of one of their fundamental laws, even if any Minister or combination of Ministers attempted such a crime against the country.
White Australia was practically affirmed by the repatriation of the kanakas, and will continue to be a basic law of Australia.
It was a National Government that promulgated the policy and carried it out, the Labour party then being only a very small minority in the Federal Parliament, smaller than it is to-day.
On what grounds does the P.L.L. or Anti-conscription League arrogate to itself the guardianship of a basic plank of the Nationalist platform?
The real assailants of the White Australia policy are the German armies in Europe.
The real defender of the White Australia policy — the Power that has made it possible — is Great Britain.
If Great Britain is defeated who will defend a White Australia, with the control of this huge continent by 5,000,000 people — less than the population of little Belgium?
To which Power will Australia look for support if now she allows her divisions at the front to dwindle away?
How could we appeal to Allies in future if we abandon them at the present?
The war, forced on free people as the result of the foulest conspiracy of which history has any record, is a test of the nation, a test of the British race.
It can only maintain its right to a place in the world by defending the right.
If Germany is ever in a position to dictate terms to Great Britain not only a White Australia but Australia itself is lost.
White Australia is certainly at stake, but only because Australia herself is at stake in the war.
Vote “Yes.”
PERCY ALLEN, 38 Hunter-street.
Source:
The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW), 17 December 1917, p. 7
Editor’s notes:
Federal Parliament = the national parliament of Australia (i.e. the parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia)
kanaka = a Pacific Islander employed as an indentured labourer in various countries, such as Australia (especially in Queensland), British Columbia (Canada), Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu; in Australia the kanakas were mostly used on the sugar plantations and cotton plantations in Queensland (the word “kanaka” derives from the Hawaiian word for “person” or “man”)
See: 1) “Australian South Sea Islanders”, State Library of Queensland
2) “Kanaka”, Encyclopaedia Britannica
3) “AGY-2566 | Royal Commission of Enquiry into certain cases of Alleged Kidnapping of Natives of the Loyalty Islands, in the years 1865 – 1868; and the state and probable results of Polynesian Immigration”, Research Data Australia
4) Keith Windschuttle, “Why Australia had no slavery: The islanders”, Quadrant, 19 June 2020
5) “Digitised @ SLQ – Islanders speak out about deportation in 1906”, State Library of Queensland, 15 August 2013
6) “Kanaka (Pacific Island worker)”, Wikipedia
Minister = (in the context of various British Commonwealth countries, including Australia) a Minister of the Crown (including the Prime Minister); a government minister who is responsible for overseeing a government department, formulating government policy, and/or making decisions on issues affecting the country; someone who is part of the government Ministry or Cabinet
Nationalist = of or pertaining to the Nationalist Party, an Australian political party which operated from 1917 to 1931 (it was succeeded by the United Australia Party, which was formed in 1931)
See: “Nationalist Party (Australia)”, Wikipedia
P.L.L. = Political Labor League (an early name of the Australian Labor Party in New South Wales)
Power = a country, kingdom, empire, sovereign state, or political entity which is considered to possess great international authority, or which has significant strength (regarding industrial capacity, military forces, political influence, or trade dealings, but especially regarding military strength), e.g. the Great Powers, the Axis Powers, the Allied Powers
[Editor: Changed “herself is a stake” to “herself is at stake”.]
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