" AUSTRALIA AND ASIATICS "
SIR,—The article in your last issue on " Australia and Asiatics " revived memories of a wild night in 1895 when the Catterthun,' only a few hours out of Sydney en route for China, sank in ten minutes after striking the " Seal " Rocks. I had the good fortune to get into the only boat that escaped destruction, and would have been the only sur- viving passenger had not a piece of wreckage come within my grasp to which two people were clinging—an Australian passenger and a Chinese sailor. We heard afterwards that the Chinaman, fearing that the wreckage to which they were clinging was too small to support them both, had suggested that his companions should fmd some other means of support. At that time the " White Australia " policy was in full swing, and shortly after our arrival back in Sydney, The Sydney Herald came out with a full-page cartoon depicting a large box labelled " Australia " floating in a tempestuous sea, to which were clinging an Australian and a Chinaman. Me thinky," says the Chinaman, "more better you go catchy nother piety box "!—Yours, &c., A. W. COPEMAN. Salisbury Lodge, Salisbury Road, Hove, Sussex.
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