Best We Forget by Peter Cochrane

Author:Peter Cochrane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2018-06-26T16:00:00+00:00

8

‘No White Man Worthy of the Name’

George Burns: ‘Does the honorable member believe that we should be under the protection of Japan?’

Alfred Conroy: ‘Certainly not. What a stupid, silly question to ask any one.’

William Finlayson: ‘That is Winston Churchill’s idea.’

Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, 16 April 1914

George Pearce came home from the Imperial Conference by way of Russia and Japan, where he noted that Japanese industry and armament proclaimed a readiness for war. In his public utterances thereafter, he would cite his first-hand experience, the evidence he had gained, reminding his audience that while Europe was a month’s journey from the Commonwealth, it took just eight days to ship from Japan to Australia.

Not everyone was persuaded in all regards. Opponents of the compulsory military scheme were a force in the labour movement, if not the parliamentary Labor Party. When Pearce addressed a town-hall meeting at Broken Hill, in western New South Wales, he was heckled by miners’ union men who shouted their opposition to the government’s defence policy and to compulsion in particular:

A voice: ‘Hired murderers.’

Senator Pearce: ‘They’re not hired murderers.’

A voice: ‘They’re forced to serve.’

Senator Pearce: ‘They are made to perform a duty which they owe their country. Japan today is an arsenal from beginning to end—for what? For international arbitration? No! For something in the future. Every country in the world bar this favoured land has felt the curse of war upon its shores. What guarantee had they that peace will continue. Australians must be prepared to fight for a White Australia. That time might come and men must be trained for it. No white man worthy of the name could refrain from defending his country and his womenfolk against the Asiatic. Industrially and politically the Asiatic is far behind Australia, and men who are Australians do not or should not want to be brought down to the level of Asiatics.’1

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