ALIEN IMMIGRATION.

The letter of Mr. Pulsford which we published yesterday harmonises with a growing sentiment amongst a certain class in this and the neighboring colonies in favor of removing the present restrictions upon the influx of Asiatic races. In Queensland this feeling has been showing itself lately with unusual boldness, and it finds an enthusiastic welcome from the Imperial press, which has never given more than a grudged tolerance to our anti-Chinese laws. At present the demand is not for a total repeal of the Acts restricting Chinese immigration; the movement is more gradual, more insidious, and consequently more in need of watching. An effort is being made to establish reciprocal relations with Japan, under which immigrants from that country would be freely admitted, while it is argued that the prohibitive stringency of the anti-Chinese laws might, without any danger, be considerably relaxed. What lends an additional element of seriousness to the movement is the fact that Japan is showing great anxiety for its success. Some time ago a Japanese Commissioner paid a special visit to Queensland, with the view of reporting to his Government upon the suitability of that colony as a field for emigration, and already the influx of his countrymen, to the northern ports especially, is by no means inconsiderable. And now we see Japan claiming the full status of a European nation, which shows that for us to exclude Japanese from this country the same as we exclude Chinese would be the subject of a sharp complaint to Great Britain. All these facts will assuredly be made the most of by the advocates of Asiatic labor, who are by no means a small or uninfluential party in Australia; while the whole official sympathy of England is likewise on their side. It behoves those who value the preservation of Australia as a white man's land, therefore, to begin to keenly watch the progress of events in this direction.
 The virtues of the Japanese are being much extolled just now, and we are told that there are many things which we might benefit ourselves by learning from them. It is not necessary to deny one word of this. The Japanese are unquestionably a people entitled to respect, but that it would be to our advantage to allow them free access to our shores is another thing. There is no need to view the question of their admission as one exclusively affecting the labor market. Indeed, we consider that amongst the least important of its aspects. There is no fear of the inferior laborer ever displacing the superior one where competition is free, and that the white workman would succeed in holding his own against the Asiatic may be taken for granted. The question is a social rather than an economic one. Whatever the virtues of Japanese may be at home, it is certain that as fellow-colonists they can never take the same rank here as European immigrants. In this sense every objection to the Chinese applies equally to them, and is quite as insuperable. A foreigner from any of the European countries mingles with the population, and after a generation or two his race merges into the Australian, so that the difference becomes indistinguishable. But the Asiatic is a different kind of man. His blood will not blend with the Australian, and if he comes here at all it must be to form a segregate and inferior social element in the community. In America, where all European peoples meet and mingle, the only distinctions of race are the white and the colored. We see the result of having such a distinction in the constant feuds raging between the two castes; for where there are two segregate races, it inevitably means caste. The stronger dominate and oppress the weaker, which state of things can never be made consistent with a healthy national life. We want to provide no troubles of that kind for ourselves here. A subservient class would always be a potentially dangerous class, and in considering the influx of Asiatics to Australia, this is the one great fact that has to be kept in view. Whether they are Japanese or Chinese or Afghans makes not the least difference. The question is, are they a race capable of being absorbed into our population, so as to form a homogeneous whole, in accordance with the present national type? There is really nothing else to consider. The Japanese, however admirable they may be in other respects, do not fulfil this essential condition, consequently we cannot, without grave danger to Australia's destiny, allow them to come here in any number on the same footing as Europeans. It is no use telling us what an excellent people they are in their own country. About that we have no concern. Our whole case is that it is undesirable to have a people, no matter how excellent, in this country whose presence would involve a racially divided community.

Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Thursday 27 December 1894, page 4