[Editor: This is a chapter from the novel The Coloured Conquest (1904) by “Rata” (Thomas Richard Roydhouse).]
Chapter VII.
Australia and Japan. — Some talk of “a yellow whirlwind.” — Disquieting news.
By Cable. — London, April 19.
“The exodus of Japanese from Honolulu, Brazil, and other places, that has been going on for some time, has materially increased of late.
“The native Press of Tokio hints at an Australian surprise in connection with their departures.
“Other messages suggest a secret Japanese rendezvous in the Pacific.”
This cablegram was published in the Sydney morning papers of April 20, 1908.
During the preceding years there had been a good deal of talk of Japan “dealing it out” to Australia, on account of the Commonwealth Legislature shutting out the Japanese as Colored undesirables, but nothing had come of it.
That was as far as interference with Australia was concerned.
But the Brito-Japanese alliance had collapsed as a result of a refusal by Britain to coerce Australia into more friendly relations with Japan.
Japan was now alone.
Yet not alone, for was not China getting herself in order under the guidance of “the little Brown men.”
Japan was building warships for China, and China was building some for herself. Millions were being squeezed out of the Chinese for war material.
Furthermore, Italy having got into Queer Street in endeavouring to maintain her position in Europe’s armed camp, Japan had purchased several of her battleships — with China’s money, it was believed. But there was Indian and African money, too.
Italy had also built some new warships to China’s order, and the South American republics had sold her a number.
At this period many European observers were regarding the East with serious faces. Publicists who had foretold trouble with Japan and China were recalling their warnings.
The Novoye Vremya, a well-known morning paper in St. Petersburg, for example, reprinted a paragraph that had originally appeared in its columns three years before.
The Novoye Vremya declared before the outbreak of war that Russia would not accept Japan’s challenge until all peaceable expedients were exhausted. If war did come, it added, “Europe should understand that it will mark the beginning of a grand struggle between Christianity and Heathenism, the result of which will be felt in every corner of the earth.”
A sensational statement made in 1903 by a Japanese military officer, and that was regarded as “bounce” at the time, was dragged forth, and given newspaper lime-light once more. It was as follows:—
“If we are barred from Manchuria, we still have our last and greatest hope to fall back upon for the final stand. I mean China. She looks to us now for aid, comfort, sympathy, advice, and guidance, and she is getting all she asks, and more.
“China does not call us dwarfs any longer. We are little genii now, and truly we are doing the work of genii in organising that hitherto inert mass.
“You all know that the Chinaman excels in everything he undertakes, providing it seems worth while to him. Hitherto he has shunned war, because he fancied it was brute madness for men to slaughter one another; but the West has goaded him into thinking that war is sometimes a fine thing for its own sake. He needs little coaching now to desire war for revenge and defence.
“When the time comes Japan will guide the yellow whirlwind and direct the yellow storm, and I am prone to think that certain nations will find it a veritable sirocco.
“In that day, not so far distant as may be imagined by those who have not been through China of late, Japan will feed fat on territory.”
It is interesting to recall just here that there were not wanting other warnings of what was to come. Many writers had hinted at the East conquering the West; but none ever forecast, as I did, the wiping out of the White races, and the coming of the time when all the world would be Coloured.
Would that my dread forecast had not been so successful!
However, I can not put back the calendar or checkmate Destiny. The day of the White man has passed. Now there are only Yellow, Brown, and Black races — if I except the slaves.
But to revert to the warning. Here is one, just as it was published (in the course of a review of a book) in a Sydney paper during the Russo-Japanese war (to be exact on May 12th, 1904 — the day that the news came that the Russians, hemmed in at Port Arthur, were blowing up their own warships):—
“Will the East ever conquer the West? Will the yellow whirlwind, rushing with irresistible force across the world, engulf Europe and its civilisation until its people sink beneath the matchless strength and numbers of 800,000,000 inhabitants of Asia?
“It seems the wildest dream, and so, let us hope, it is.
“But there is ever the substance behind the shadow, and thinking men who have made the East the study of their lives do not scorn the vision of the Yellow Whirlwind. Some day it will come, and then, if Europe should drive it back, it in its turn will drive Europe out of Asia.
“Will the East ever conquer the West? No, almost certainly. But will the West ever conquer the East? Again almost certainly, we may say No. Though to the external world one-half of Asia seems to have become European, neither Great Britain nor Russia has in reality, says Mr. Townsend, exercised any influence upon the millions she conquered. In the north the tribes held down by Russia would rebel in a moment if they dared, and ‘there are not 10,000 natives in India who, unpaid and uncoerced, would die in defence of the British sovereignty.’ The moment it was known in 1857 that the enterprise was possible owing to the shrinkage of the white garrison, the most favored class sprang at their rulers’ throats, and had the dark people produced one soldier of genius we could not have won. As it is, we remain masters, but —
“Beneath the small film of white men who make up the Indian Empire boils or sleeps a sea of dark men, incurably hostile, who await with patience the day when the ice shall break and the ocean regain its power of restless movement under its own laws.
“Some day,” says this wonderful book, “England will wake up to find that India is lost. ‘All who have watched the progress of affairs for the last quarter of a century are aware that the previously formless discontent of India is gradually finding voice in a single cry, that office in India should be reserved to Indians;’ and ‘the insurrection will occur within a month of our sustaining any defeat whatever, severe enough to be recognised as a defeat in the Indian bazaars.’”
Then there was another statement made by a Japanese Minister of the Crown in 1903, in reply to an Australian traveller, viz.:—
“Japan is a small country with a large population; Australia is a large country with a small population. What do you think?”
That likewise was exhumed and made the text for newspaper sermons.
Not only Australia, but the whole world, was now recognising cause for uneasiness.
A number of British, German, and American writers urged that there should be a combination of European Powers to crush China and Japan before they got any stronger, but international jealousy prevented any such suggestion being carried out.
There were others who said it could not be carried out. That at the first signal for such a combination the people of India would wrest themselves free, and the people of the East would throw out every White from their territories.
All thinking men realised a danger, though some more vaguely than others.
But it was too late.
In my opinion the day had gone by for effective preparation against Japanese invasion of Australia — to deal only with that part of the question for the moment.
I had warned the people years before, but they had ignored my warning. Men in responsible official positions laughed at what they were pleased to call my “funk.” Now those same men were using my old-time words of warning — now that our case was hopeless.
Of course, they — and the people at large — did not yet regard it as hopeless, although they were much afraid.
They urged that every preparation should be made to meet an invader, and Mr. Johnson, Minister for Defence, assured all deputations that “everything was perfect.”
Pressed for a statement as to the ammunition in stock — I had longed urged the establishment of a local ammunition and small arms factory, but without result — he complied.
A newspaper promptly made a calculation, and showed that Australia’s total stock of ammunition could be shot away by the Federal Defence forces — without counting new volunteer regiments called into existence by the scare — in one engagement lasting twenty minutes!
The Minister for Defence pooh-poohed the idea, but his pooh-poohing did not appear to reassure the public.
Mr. Dugald Thomson moved, in the Federal House of Representatives, that large additional supplies of ammunition, together with 50,000 new rifles, to arm men not at present in the Defence forces, and six batteries of field artillery (latest pattern), 50 pompoms, and 100 maxims, be ordered by cable.
The leader of the Labour Party opposed the motion, which he characterised as of the “wildcat” order. He objected, in the strongest possible way, to “the inauguration of a reign of Militarism” and an increase of the army, which, he said, “might be used at any moment to dragoon the workers.” He also declared that such action would incite the Japanese to attack us. Our best defence, he and his colleagues asserted, was none at all. “Panic legislation was always dangerous.”
The motion was carried in reduced form.
A little later the strain was relaxed. The weights for the Melbourne Cup were published, and for a time the people forgot their fear in the excitement of endeavouring to pick winners.
* * *
No one troubled to deny that the Japanese could land in enormous force in a score of places in West Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia, and Queensland without molestation, if there were no warships to intercept them.
I also contended that the Japanese could land in New South Wales and Victoria. With their superior field artillery, that outranged anything of the kind in the world, they could push back any force sent against them.
Moreover, I held that Japanese warships need not “fiddle about,” landing troops at isolated spots on the coast, for they could come right up to Sydney or Melbourne.
Of course, such contentions always called forth cries of “Nonsense!” and “What about our forts?”
I used to put a question in reply:
“Do you think if the Japanese decide to come they will give notice of their coming?”
* * *
But although beset by dread of what might happen to Australia at the hands of the Brown invaders, I was not without my moments of happiness.
Mabel Graham was at last my affianced wife, and we were to be married soon.
I was thinking of her as I arranged my office table and memoranda one evening before leaving, for I was to dine at her father’s house, and visions of the pleasant hour in the dear old garden with my beloved were brightening my brain.
I was whistling a bit of ragtime music as I fumbled at my key chain, when a telegraph messenger appeared and thrust an envelope into my hands.
It was a cablegram.
The contents were brief:—
“Will be with you soon. Remembrance to Miss Graham. — Yoko.”
I was staggered for a moment.
I turned the cable over and back and read it again and again. Then I casually looked for the address. Strange to say, it was —
“New Caledonia.”
Source:
Rata, The Coloured Conquest, Sydney (NSW): N.S.W. Bookstall Co., 1904, pp. 52-60
Editor’s notes:
bounce = a boast, a self-aggrandizing lie; to brag, boast, or bluster; cheek, impudence; arrogance.
See: “bounce n. 1”, Green’s Dictionary of Slang (see entries: 1b an 1d)
dragoon = to coerce, compel, or force someone into doing something (especially in a military context); to use oppressive measures or tactics to force someone to comply with an order; can also refer to a heavily armed cavalryman (originally a mounted infantryman)
film = a thin coating, covering, layer, or veneer of a substance (liquid, oil, powder, etc.) upon a surface (e.g. a film of oil on water, a thin coating of dust, the liquid film covering an eyeball)
funk = a state of fear or panic (may also refer to a coward; may also refer to a state of depression, including the phrase “in a blue funk”)
genii = in Roman mythology, a spirit who would guide and guard someone for their entire life; in Arabian mythology, demons, also known as jinn (plural of jinni or genie); in fairy tales, magical spirits who grant wishes (plural of genie); a guardian spirit of an institution, place, or nation
maxim = the Maxim machine gun, which used .303 inch (7.7mm) calibre ammunition; it was invented by Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1884, and was the first recoil-operated machine gun
See: “Maxim gun”, Wikipedia
Novoye Vremya = a Russian newspaper, published in St. Petersburg from 1868 to 1917
See: Novoye Vremya (newspaper), Wikipedia
paper = newspaper
pompom = (also spelt: pom-pom) the QF 1-pounder, an autocannon (produced by Maxim-Nordenfelt, and later by Vickers, Sons and Maxim) which used 37mm calibre ammunition; it was invented by Hiram Stevens Maxim in the late 1880s, basically as a larger version of the Maxim machine gun; it gained its nickname of “pom pom” from the sound it made when firing
pooh-pooh = ridicule; deride or dismiss with contempt or derision
Queer Street = financial embarrassment, financial instability
score = twenty (sometimes used in conjunction with a cardinal number, e.g. “threescore”, “fourscore”) (may also refer to an undefined large number)
sirocco = a dry dust-laden and oppressively hot wind that blows from northern Africa (particularly from the region of the Sahara Desert) into southern Europe (especially to the islands of Malta and Sicily, as well as the mainland of southern Italy); a warm or hot wind (especially a southerly wind) originating from an arid region
Tokio = an archaic spelling of Tokyo (capital city of Japan)
viz. = (Latin) an abbreviation of “videlicet” (a contraction of the Latin phrase “videre licet”), meaning “it is permitted to see” (the “z” derives from the z-shaped Latin shorthand symbol for “et”, as used in the Tironian shorthand style); in actual practice, “viz.” is used as a synonym for “in other words”, “namely”, “that is to say”, “to wit”, or “which is” (used when giving further details about something, or giving a list of specific examples or items)
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