TOPICS OF THE DAY.
JAPAN, AMERICA, AND THE ANGLO-SAXON WORLD.
THERE has been a good deal of uneasiness during the past week in regard to the relations between Japan and America, caused by the news that an American fleet has been ordered to proceed to the Pacific,—a fleet com- posed. of practically all America's fighting ships. The anxiety thus created, although it was at once explained officially that the resolve to send the fleet to the Pacific was an old one, and dictated rather by considerations of naval training than of international policy, was maintained by a very alarmist communication sent by the special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph at the Hague Conference. It was there alleged that diplomatic Notes of a grave character had been passing between the two Governments, and that their relations were rapidly drifting to an impasse. This pessimistic forecast, how- ever, has also been contradicted, and it has been semi-- officially stated that there is nothing in the negotiations that have been proceeding between the two Governments which can at all warrant the conclusions set out in the Daily Telegraph.
Careful consideration of the situation as a whole, enforced by information from trustworthy sources, has led us to the conclusion that matters are at the moment by no means so serious as has been repre- sented. There is, wo feel convinced, no immediate danger of hostilities. Both Governments are absolutely determined to avoid war. Neither will in the exist- ing circumstances strike till it has been struck, and neither means to be the first to strike. That being so, we are, we believe, amply justified in dismissing the notion of war as at the present moment wholly incredible. But though there is no present risk, we must reluctantly admit that the situation, considered not as regards the present but the future, contains many elements of anxiety. Those who look forward .to a. conflict at some time or other caused by the determination of the Japanese to press, and the determina- tion of the Anglo-Saxon oversea, both in America and in Australia and New Zealand, to resist, the claim of the Japanese to enter and to help to develop territories bordering on the Pacific which the white man considers reserved for his special occupation, can, unfortunately, not be described as mere visionaries or dreamers. The hard, practical facts of the case are with the pessimists. We may sum up the situation, indeed, by saying that though things at present are not nearly as bad as " the man in the street " supposes, the future outlook, though not necessarily a near future, is probably a good deal worse than he imagines.
We find ourselves in agreement with the leading article in the Daily Telegraph of Wednesday, which dwells upon the indisputable fact that the people of Australia and New Zealand are determined to " keep their several countries to themselves, and to receive only the immigrants they can assimilate," and " are prepared to make any sacrifice " to maintain this principle. As the Daily Telegraph goes on, " they have been infinitely wiser, calmer, and more decent in their procedure than California has been, but to their determination, as we have described it, it is well known that there are no limits whatever." This view is strongly supported by a very striking letter from an Australian which we publish in another column. We may dislike this view, and we may wish that it were possible that the Britons oversea would be willing to count the Japanese as white men, and to consider them as fit to be assimilated into their communities. Whether we like it or not, however, we have got to admit the fact that the opinion we have just suggested is not held, and in all human probability never will be held, by the inhabitants of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, or the Pacific provinces of Canada. The inhabitants of these communities realise, in view of the immense capacities of the Japanese for emigration, that if they were once to allow the Japanese full and free rights of access and occupation, they would be obliged to look forward in the future to a mixed Etiropean and Japanese polity, and to abandon their ideal of a white Anglo-Saxon self-governing State. Much as we respect the Japanese, much as we detest the usual phenomena of racial and colour prejudice, strongly as we condemn and sternly as we would punish the monstrous outrages which have occasion- ally been committed by the white man on the yellow man, we are bound to say that in the last resort we cannot wonder that the self-governing English-speaking com- munities of the Empire are determined to remain white men's countries, with all that that involves, and will not run the risk of letting the land they live in and the land they love be made the ground for an experiment which has never before been tried in history,—the experiment of a. community of mixed European and Asiatic blood, founded on a mixture of the social, religious, and moral ideals of the two continents.
People sometimes talk as if it were possible to segre- gate the Asiatic and the European, and to let each . live his own life side by side without jealousy or
interference. Those who argue thus do not realise the conditions of Colonial life. It is, no doubt, quite possible in Egypt or in India for a small number of highly paid officials to segregate themselves, and to produce a European community governed by European ideals within the Asiatic polity. When, however, working' men of the yellow race live side by side with working men of the white race, no such life in water-tight com- partments is possible. The races must either mix, or one must go. Let our readers who are made indignant by the logic of these facts place themselves for a moment in the position of a working man in Australia or New Zealand. Can they honestly say that they would like to live as poor men in a close community side by side, and on an absolute equality, with men and women of the yellow race, with their children in hourly intercourse with the children of that race, and with those children and themselves called upon almost daily to choose whether they would conform to the moral, intellectual, and social standards set by Asia upon all sorts of questions, including matters of religion and sex, or those set by Europe? We do not wish to argue here whether the European standards are necessarily better, and we are fully aware that a Japanese may often put to shame a European in matters of morality, temperance, and self-restraint. The fact remains, however, that the moral and social and political ideals are different, and we, at any rate, have no hesitation whatever in declaring that for our people the Christian civilisation is infinitely the better, and that every effort and sacrifice must be made to maintain it, and to reject its dilution with that which we think is lower, and which, at any rate, all must admit is conflicting in essentials.
Stated in its simplest and most concrete terms, the problem comes to this. Can the Anglo-Saxons and the Japanese, maintaining their mutual respect for each other, manage to divide the Pacific world between them in such a way that they may keep their labouring popula- tions from mixing, and yet at the same time practise in their relations true friendliness and freedom of inter course ? Circumstances have forced the Americans to be the pioneers in working out one portion of this problem. No one can say how soon another series of accidents may bring us face to face with similar difficulties. That being so, it must be our hope that the Americans will settle their differences over a conflict so brutally and so shame- lessly raised by the Californian mob without resort to hostilities, and on lines which will be consistent with the national honour and dignity both of Japan and of the United States, and so afford a precedent for a similar settlement on our part. To help on a result which must be beneficial to us is clearly the most immediate and the most important of international duties, and we sincerely trust that not only Sir Edward Grey, who is primarily concerned, but the Prime Minister and the rest of the Cabinet, will bend their minds to procuring by all the means in their power a peaceful and lasting solution of the Japanese problem. Happily, our relations at this moment with the Japanese are of a most friendly kind, while with America. we have not merely the sympathies of race, but also of a common perplexity. Probably our good offices may best be exercised in private and semi-officially ; but that they will be exercised, and with the most earnest endeavour to find a solution, is our devout prayer.
Meantime the Press and the public here can do some- thing to promote the solution. In the first place, journalists should remember that a very great and special responsibility rests upon them to understand and to state fairly both-the Japanese and- the American case. If they do not, they may find that they have created the most embarrassing of precedents. Suppose that we in our turn should be called on to give satisfaction to a demand on the part of the Japanese logically and morally just, which involved the coercion of some portion of the British Empire that bad placed itself not merely technically but actually in the wrong in a particular case, though acting on an instinct sound enough in itself. Such a case is by no means incredible, and if it arises we shall not find it easier to meet if we can be confronted with hasty and indiscreet expressions of opinion in our principal news- papers. Probably this is one of the occasions on which the less said by the journalist the better ; but such a declaration, we are fully aware, is not of any very great practical value. After all, we must remember that publicity is the business of the Press, and that if news- papers are to exist—and, on the whole, we are convinced that the world is benefited by their existence—they must not only publish the news, but comment upon it. Hence it is always better to urge discretion rather than silence on the Press, for to preach silence to a newspaper is not unlike urging the tide not to flow.
We must, in conclusion, express our hope that nothing we have said either here or in our comment upon our correspondent's letter will seem unfair or derogatory to the Japanese. Nothing could be further from our desire than to give offence to a people so chivalrous, so high- minded, and so rightly sensitive on matters of national honour. We have the highest admiration for the valour, the patriotism, the genius, and the great spiritual qualities of the Japanese, and none desire more ardently than we do to live on the friendliest terms with them, and to see them play that great part in the world's history which we believe they are destined to play if they are content to move at first slowly and prudently. At the same time—as they, we are sure, will be the first to admit—be the claims of logic and pure reason what they will, our duty in the last resort is to our own flesh and blood. We must stand by our own people, and by the communities which form part of our Empire. This does not, of course, involve standing by them in outraging any moral or religious or political obligation, but stand by them we must when they are vindicating with reason and moderation and a due regard to justice their instinctive feeling that they can only develop their national life on the highest scale if they remain white men's countries, governed in accordance with the ethical and religious ideals of the Western races.
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