[Editor: This is a chapter from the novel The Coloured Conquest (1904) by “Rata” (Thomas Richard Roydhouse).]
The Coloured Conquest.
By “Rata.”
Chapter I.
Deals with the affairs of Mabel Graham and myself. A forecast of danger that was ridiculed.
Mabel Graham and I were engaged — she was seventeen and I twenty-three — so when the Japanese Squadron paid a visit to Sydney in 1903 — just after the alliance with Britain had been announced — and all the youth and beauty flocked to the warships to inspect them, it was only natural that Mabel and I should go together.
There was a gay assembly on board the cruiser we honoured with our presence, and the young Japanese officers were overwhelmed with the attentions of foolish girls, whose behaviour I, at any rate, did not at all admire.
They bombarded them with questions, and hung upon their words with breathlessness, only broken by an occasional “Just fancy!”
And they ogled their entertainers, too, until the little brown men believed they held captive the hearts of all the fair ladies by whom they were surrounded.
Mabel was no better than the others. She was just as interested in the nattily-attired Japanese officers, and confessed to feeling disposed to pinch them to see if they were really alive or only speaking dolls.
I was not amused at her remark, nor was she at mine, when I suggested a hat-pin propelled with vigour.
She conveyed part of her idea to Midshipman Taksuma, whose face blazed with boyish delight as he gazed at her clear complexion and sweet blue eyes.
Those blue eyes! They come before me now, as in a vision.
She was, indeed, good to look at. To the Japanese she seemed a goddess. He said so in his own way before the Squadron left Sydney (we had seen much of him in the meantime), and he said a good deal more in reference to another subject, whereon I did not consider him an authority at the time.
The Officers of the Squadron were, as a rule, very discreet, and if asked as to the possibility of a war with Russia would reply that they “didn’t know,” but hoped to render a good account of themselves should it come.
Midshipman Taksuma, however, was different. In the first place, he was as effervescent as a bottle of champagne, and would talk in a delightfully irresponsible manner of the most important State secrets, or what should have been State secrets.
A near relative of the Marquis Ito, he appeared to know a good deal that Japan’s greatest Statesman knew, and apparently saw no necessity to guard his utterances. Probably he never thought about doing so.
He was often at our house — and at Mabel’s house, too — and — was a great favourite with all of us. To me he became sincerely attached, and finally made me swear an oath of brotherhood with him after a little affair in Hyde Park, when he was set upon by three “toughs” with sandbags, and would have fared badly indeed had I not chanced upon the scene.
I laughed over the oath, but he was serious enough. To that circumstance I owed my immunity from harm in later years. Yet, looking backwards, I do not know that I appreciate the continued consideration extended to me as an outcome of the friendship between Taksuma and myself.
* * *
As I have said, Taksuma talked freely; indeed, he fairly babbled.
It was evident in time that all he knew we knew.
But we did not believe, so, as a matter of fact, we gave away nothing.
We laughed, indeed, at the boy’s talk. His earnestness on his one big subject amused us — then.
“Big words from a small stomach,” said one. And that was how we all regarded it.
* * *
We were sitting on the verandah of our house at Kirribilli one evening; tiny silver wavelets were chasing each other over the harbour’s surface, and the evening was in every way one of Sydney’s best.
Taksuma was there, and the talk, as was usual when he was present, was on things Japanese.
We talked of what Japan had done since the awakening and the registering of the determination to stride with the Western Powers.
“Yes, the Japanese are a great people right enough,” said my father; “but I think they are going a little bit too far. You know there is an old saying about crawling before you walk, and it seems to me Japan ought to remember it. She is not a rich country, but here she is proposing to check the forward movement of one of the strongest nations of the earth — the strongest if she puts forth all her resources.”
Taksuma laughed.
“However, have a glass of wine. Here’s luck to you, any way. You are a plucky lot. The British of the East I call you!”
“You are right, sir,” said Taksuma, in his quaint style, “in saying Japan is not a rich country as Europeans view it. But she is richer than other countries in some things — so says the Honorable Marquis Ito, with whom I have the honor to be connected. Her greatest richness is her patriotism!
“The people one and all are for Japan!
“They will give every coin they have, every bit of food they have, for Japan!
“They will give their lives for her, and think it no great sacrifice for such a cause!
“That is where Japan is stronger than Russia. Russian patriotism is a cold thing (as my distinguished relative says, ‘It melts like ice before the sun of a heavy bribe!’) He is funny, eh?”
We laughed.
“Thus, while Japanese guns, ammunition, ships and stores can be relied on, who can say the same for Russia?
“You point out that our Navy is smaller than Russia’s. Well, so it is! But take two men-of-war of equal size, one manned by men who are inspired by the keenest patriotism and prepared to make any sacrifice, and whose equipment is perfect in every detail; the other officered by men whose thoughts have been mainly concerned with living lives of luxury (and who look to go on living lives of luxury), and with men accustomed to being driven to the guns with whips or curses, or perhaps both; ammunition and stores doubtful, which of those ships is going to win?”
We all agreed that the ship that carried the patriotism, combined with shells properly charged, must secure the honors of the day.
“Of course!” exclaimed Taksuma, his face flushed, his eyes sparkling. “Had we only half as many ships as the Russians we could beat them, for the reasons I have given! Bribery and corruption will cripple the Russian efforts as much as anything, and Japan’s task, so far from being formidable, will be astonishingly light.”
“It’s good to have plenty of confidence!” laughed the Member for Murrowa, who was in the group. “What will you little chaps do after you have squelched Russia? Challenge all the Powers — one down, t’other come on, eh?”
We laughed again; that is, all except Taksuma.
“I will tell you,” he said, speaking very slowly. ‘‘Japan will do the biggest thing that has ever been done by any country in the history of the world.”
“Oh, I must hear this!” said the Member, sitting down on the edge of the verandah and smiling broadly. “Perhaps Australia is marked for sacrifice, and it may be advisable for me to lick my troop of the Light Horse into shape without delay.”
Taksuma looked at him.
“Yes,” he said, presently, “you should listen. All the world would listen if it only knew what I know! But it would not believe if it knew — that is the fun of the thing!”
“Well, my boy, since you have whetted our appetites, go ahead,” said my father. “The ladies want to know, I am sure. Judging by their faces, and I suppose they have to right to be interested.”
“Oh, yes,” said Taksuma, with a queer little laugh, as he looked at the ladies in turn. His gaze lingered longest, and, I thought sadly, on the eyes of Mabel, that seemed drawn to his. “They have a special right to be interested — a special right.”
Again his eyes wandered to Mabel’s face.
“Go ahead,” I said, “it’s a nice night for a fairy tale!”
“It’s no fairy tale, old chap,” he responded. “But there,” he added, with a sudden change of voice, as though of relief, suggesting that he had found some way out of a difficulty into which he had been led by unguarded tongue; “but there, I don’t ask you to believe it. Call it a pipe dream, as the fellow on the Yankee war boat said, if you like.”
“Turn on steam, Tak.,” said a “Royal Arthur” lieutenant who was sitting beside me.
“You ask me,” said Taksuma, speaking in a leisurely way, “what will Japan do after she has beaten Russia?”
“Suffer a recovery I suppose for about ten years,” said the Member for Murrowa, with a laugh.
“She will then proceed to conquer the world,” continued Taksuma, unheeding the legislator.
We all laughed outright.
“Go it, little man!” said my father, “go it!”
“I knew you would laugh,” said Taksuma, calmly; “but, nevertheless, I have given you the fact.”
“But how is it to be done, Tak. old boy,” asked the “Royal Arthur” man, “let us have the secret?”
“Naturally, I cannot give you all the details; but it will come as a result of the war with Russia. All the world will be roused at seeing the great White nation go down before ‘the little Brown men,’ as you are pleased to call us.”
“Indeed, all the Coloured peoples of the world will at once realise that they are the White man’s equal, if not his superior.”
“They will suddenly awake!”
“They will look at the gazetteers and, studying population statistics, will find that they outnumber the Whites by scores of millions. Then they will think hard!”
He paused.
“But,” commenced my father ——
“Even now, I may tell you, though perhaps I should not,” — the boy was carried away by the impression he saw he had made — “that a conference has been arranged to take place in Tokio shortly between representatives of all the Eastern nations.”
“The Native Princes of India will send their representatives, the Shah of Persia his, the King of Siam his, and the King of Burmah his. Others will come from China and the Archipelagoes. Consider how many people they will represent. At least 800,000,000. And the whole world’s White population is 240,000,000.”
“Well, of course, if China were thoroughly roused and armed,” drawled the Member for Murrowa, “we all know she would be dangerous. We’ve been saying that for years. Old Sir Henry Parkes was one of the first to say it. But then will she rouse up? Moreover, if she did, corruption is so rampant that it would cripple her efforts.”
“Not under Japanese control,” said Taksuma, “at least that is what the Marquis Ito thinks. The Chinese hate the White foreign devils, as they call them, and would give something to free their country of them.”
“In fact, all Coloured peoples hate the Whites, for the reason that the Whites have looked down upon and scorned them for so long.”
“And do the Japanese hate the Whites?” asked someone, but Taksuma did not appear to hear the question, though I had my opinion as to that.”
“Japan’s success would open the eyes of all the Coloured peoples, and naturally their thoughts would run on future possibilities.”
“This conference at Tokio will consider the question of the East for Easterners; and Japan’s defeat of Russia will be the first step towards that end.”
“And after that, my dear prophetic and most uncomplimentary Takky?” inquired the “Royal Arthur” man.
“After that the conquest of the world by the Coloured peoples, led by Japan. It is merely a question of warships, guns, and trained gunners. The East can furnish — and buy — all that could possibly be required”.
“Hang me if I don’t believe it could!” said a seafaring friend of my father’s who had not previously spoken.
“The first step,” continued Taksuma, “would be to clear all the Whites out of China, Japan and the Eastern Archipelagoes; then out of India and — Australia!”
There was a chorus of “Oh!”
Some of us laughed once more. We were having a merry evening.
“Surely the Japanese do not contemplate that, Mr. Taksuma?” demanded smiling Mabel.
“My dear Miss Graham, regard it as a fairy story,” said Taksuma.
“I don’t know whether I can,” laughed Mabel, a little emotionally. “I almost believe what you said; but we are going to Japan next year, and will inquire for ourselves.”
“Do,” he said, “but go very early in the year, or very late.”
“Why?” asked Mabel.
“Guns may be barking, you know! We are in for a pretty hot time, my word!”
* * *
In February of the following year the Japanese were bombarding Port Arthur, robbed from them by Russia, after they had blown it out of the hands of the Chinese in 1895.
And it was in March that a letter reached me from Taksuma. He wrote:—
“This is the first step of the Coloured conquest I told you about. Don’t say you were not warned in time!”
Was that last line written jokingly? Somehow I was unable to joke about it.
Source:
Rata, The Coloured Conquest, Sydney (NSW): N.S.W. Bookstall Co., 1904, pp. 1-10
Editor’s notes:
Burmah = an archaic form of “Burma” (the country in south-east Asia now known as “Myanmar”)
gay = happy, joyous, carefree; well-decorated, bright, attractive (in modern times it may especially refer to a homosexual, especially a male homosexual; can also refer to something which is no good, pathetic, useless)
Henry Parkes = Sir Henry Parkes (1815-1896), the owner and editor of The Empire newspaper (Sydney), and Premier of New South Wales for five separate terms (1872-1875, 1877, 1878-1883, 1887-1889, 1889-1891)
See: 1) A. W. Martin, “Parkes, Sir Henry (1815–1896)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Henry Parkes”, Wikipedia
Light Horse = lightly armed and lightly armoured troops mounted on horses (as opposed to heavy cavalry, which were heavily armed and heavily armoured troops, whose warhorses were sometimes heavily armored as well); in later times, the term referred to mounted troops (e.g. the Australian Light Horse, which usually operated as mounted infantry, but was also used in cavalry roles) and to armoured vehicle units (e.g. the Australian 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment)
marquis = a rank of nobleman in England, France, Germany, and Japan; in British nobility, a nobleman who ranks below a duke, but above an earl (also known as “marquess”; contrary to most other words in the English language which end in “ess”, it is a masculine term, and the title is only granted to males; the female equivalent rank is “marchioness”)
Member = (in the context of parliament or parliamentarians) Member of Parliament
score = twenty (sometimes used in conjunction with a cardinal number, e.g. “threescore”, “fourscore”) (may also refer to an undefined large number)
Siam = the former name of Thailand
Tokio = an archaic spelling of Tokyo (capital city of Japan)
t’other = (vernacular) a contraction of “the other”
Yankee = an American person (someone from America, i.e. the United States of America), or something that is American in origin or style; in the context of the American Civil War (the War Between the States), or in the context of the US North-South divide, it refers to someone, or something, from the northern states of the USA
[Editor: Changed “who can say the same for Russian?” to “who can say the same for Russia?” (in line with the newspaper version). Added a closing quotation mark after “future possibilities.”]
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