_Chapter XX_
A FRIEND IN NEED
The attitude towards the war in Australia was entirely different fromthat of Europe. Everyone realized that this was not an ordinary war, buta war upon which the future of Australia depended. If the Japanesesucceeded in conquering a foot of land in North America, if a singlestar was extinguished on the blue field of the American flag, it wouldmean that the whole continent lying in Asia's shadow would also fall aprey to the yellow race.
The early reports from the Philippines and from San Francisco, and thecrushing news of the destruction of the Pacific fleet, swept like awhirlwind through the streets of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Wellingtonand Auckland, and gave rise to tremendous public demonstrations.Business came to a stand-still, for the Australian people had ears onlyfor the far-off thunder of cannon, and their thoughts were occupied withthe future. Huge open-air mass-meetings and innumerable demonstrationsbefore the American consulates bore witness to Australia's honestsympathy. The time had arrived for the fifth continent to establish itspolitical status in the council of nations.
In Sydney the mob had smashed the windows of the Japanese consulate.Satisfaction was at once categorically demanded from London, where thegovernment trembled at the bare idea of a hostile demonstration againstits ally. The apology was to take the form of a salute to the Japaneseflag on the consulate by a coast battery, etc. But the Australiangovernment refused point blank to do this, and contented itself with asimple declaration of regret; and as there was no other course open tohim, the Japanese Consul had to be satisfied. But in Tokio this affairwas entered on the credit side of the Anglo-Japanese ledger, offsettingthe debt of gratitude for August 10, 1904, when the English fleetconstituted the shifting scenery behind Togo's battleships.
A great many of the Japanese located in Australia had left the countrybefore the outbreak of the war to join the army of invasion, and thosewho remained behind soon recognized that there was no work for themanywhere on the continent. When they refused to take this hint and makethemselves scarce, Australian fists began to remind them that the periodof Anglo-Mongolian brotherhood was a thing of the past. The last of theJapanese settlers were put aboard an English steamer at Sydney and toldto shift for themselves. The Chinese, too, began to leave the country,and wherever they did not go of their own accord, they were told inpretty plain language that the yellow man's day in Australia was ended.
Australia, up to this time merely an appendage of the Old World, acolony which had received its blood from the heart of the British Empireand its ideas from the nerve-center in Downing Street, which hadhitherto led a purely dependent existence, now awoke and began todevelop a political life of its own. And this development, born of theoutbreak of Mongolian hostilities, could not be restrained. The time hadpassed when the European nations could say: The world's history iscreated by us, other nations are of no account.
Once before Australia had taken an active part in politics. That waswhen the Union Jack was threatened, when British regiments were meltingaway before the rifles of a peasant people at Magersfontein, Colenso andGraspan, when Ladysmith was being besieged, and Downing Street trembledfor the safety of the empire. Then, in the hour of dire need, a cry forhelp went out to all the peoples dwelling beneath the Union Jack, whoseflagstaff was being shaken by sturdy peasant hands. And the colonialtroops heard the call and responded nobly. Australian and Canadianheroism was ushered into being on the grassy plains and kopjes of theTransvaal. They may not have been good to look at and their manners werenot those of the drawing-room, but England opened her arms to thosesplendid fellows from the Australian bush and was glad to use them inher hour of need--but afterwards she forgot them. But those days werenot so soon forgotten in Australia; there are too many men still goingaround with one arm or a wooden leg. The gentlemen in Downing Street,however, have short memories, and the debt of thanks they owed thecolonies quickly slipped their minds.
For the sake of her bales of cotton, her export lists, and her Indianpossessions, the London government threw all the traditions of theBritish world empire overboard and forgot that Old England's problem ofcivilization was the conquest of the world for the Anglo-Saxon race. Forthe sake of her London merchants, Old England betrayed Greater Britain,which in the calculations of the London statesmen was only ageographical conception, while the nations without credulously acceptedthe decisions of English politics as the gospel of British power.
England offered the hand of fellowship to the Japanese parvenu simplybecause she wanted some one to hold her Russian rival in check.
What the Manchurian campaign cost England can be figured out exactly,to the pound and shilling. She simply purchased the downfall of Russiawith the loan of a few hundred millions to Japan--an excellent bargain.
But Sir Charles Dilke was beginning to open the people's eyes. "AnotherJapanese loan," he cried, "will slip a sharp dagger into the hand of ourgreatest commercial rival."
England, however, would not listen, and after the war she only drew thebonds of the alliance closer for fear of the Japanese ants who werecreeping secretly into India and whispering into the people's ears thatthe dominion of a few hundred thousand white men over three hundredmillion Indians was based solely on the legend of the superiority of thewhite race, a legend which Mukden and Tsushima had completely nullified.
After all, London was at liberty to adopt any policy it liked; but inthis particular case the colonies were expected to bear the entirecosts. And this was the gratitude for the aid given in South Africa forcustoms favors extended to English goods at Ottawa, Cape Town, andMelbourne. Deliberately disregarding the warnings of Sir WilfredLaurier, of Seddon, and of Deakin, who clearly recognized the proximityof the danger, the gentlemen in London insisted upon unrestrictedJapanese immigration into the colonies, although Hawaii furnished aneloquent example of how quickly coolie immigrants can transform anAnglo-Saxon colony into a Japanese one.
In South Africa, too, England was sowing trouble with Mongolian miners,until the Africanders took it upon themselves to rid their country ofthis yellow plague.
In consideration of the existing alliance with Japan, Downing Streetdemanded of Canada and Australia that the Japanese settlers should begranted equal privileges with the white man. New Zealand's primeminister, Seddon, a resolute man whose greatness is not appreciated inEurope, brought his fist down on the table with a vengeance at the lastColonial Conference in London and appealed to Old England's consciencein the face of the yellow danger. All in vain. Although he persisted inproclaiming New Zealand's right to adhere to her exclusive immigrationlaws, it was several years before Australia and Canada awoke to arealization of the dangers which the influx of Japanese coolies held instore for them, and before they began to prepare for an energeticresistance.
Then, in August, 1908, came the American fleet. Great was the rejoicingin all the Australian coast towns, and the welcome extended to theAmerican sailors and marines proved to the world that hearts werebeating in unison here in the fear of future catastrophes. Never has thefeeling of the homogeneousness of the white race, of the Anglo-Saxonrace, celebrated such festivals, and when the Australians and Americansshook hands at parting, the former realized that a brother was leavingwith whom they would one day fight side by side--when the crisis cameand the die was cast which was to decide whether the Pacific should beruled by the Anglo-Saxon or the Mongolian race.
And now the danger that had been regarded as likely to make itself feltdecades hence had become a terrible reality in less than no time. Thejoint Japanese foe was actually on American soil, the American dominionover the Philippines and Hawaii had been swept away at the first onset,and the great brother nation of the United States was struggling for itsexistence as a nation and for the future of the white race.
What had become of Great Britain's imperialism, of the All-British idea,for the sake of which Australia, Canada, and New Zealand had sent theirsons to South Africa? England, whose grand mission it was to protectthe palladium of Anglo-Saxon dom
inion, stood aloof in this conflict.
The cabinet of St. James had sent a warning to Ottawa not to permitCanadian volunteers to enter the United States, and similar instructionshad been forwarded to Melbourne and Wellington.
But when England, at Japan's instigation, tried to persuade the Europeanpowers to compel Mexico to prevent American volunteer regiments fromcrossing the frontier by concentrating her army opposite El Paso,Germany frustrated this plan by declaring that the acknowledgment of theMonroe Doctrine as a political principle in 1903 rendered it impossiblefor her to meddle in America's political affairs. In spite of thisfailure, the cabinet of St. James continued to play the role ofinternational watchman, and employed the influence secured by _ententes_in previous years to carefully prevent other European governments fromviolating the laws of neutrality towards Japan. It was, of course, theworry over India which made the English government, generally veryelastic in its views regarding neutrality, all at once so extremelyvirtuous.
London felt very uncomfortable when, in July, a Canadian paper publishedan alleged conversation between a Japanese and an English diplomatist."What will Great Britain do in case of war?" the Japanese is said tohave asked, whereupon he received the ambiguous answer: "Her duty."Then, with the daring candor assumed by these people when they feel thatthey are masters of the situation, the Japanese had declared: "TheLondon government must bear in mind that the continuation of Britishrule in India depends absolutely on the wishes of Japan; that England,in other words, can support the United States only at the price of anIndian insurrection."
This conversation, which was published by a curious act of indiscretion,and of course at once denied in London, nevertheless threw a flood oflight on England's political situation. Japan did not directly ask formilitary aid, which, as a matter of fact, she had no right to expectunder the terms of the second Anglo-Japanese agreement, but she diddemand favorable neutrality on the part of Great Britain as the guardianof the mobile forces of the Anglo-Saxon world-empire; in other words,Japan insisted that England should betray her own race for the sake ofIndia.
This political trick of the Japanese government was the yellow man'srevenge for the half promises with which England had driven Japan intothe conflict with Russia, and then; after the outbreak of the war, hadoffered only meager messages of sympathy instead of furnishing theexpected military assistance.
England's destiny now hung in the balance; the threads reaching fromOttawa, Cape Town, Melbourne, and Wellington to Downing Street werebecoming severed, not by a sword-cut, but by England's own policy.
If imperialism should leave no room for a "white" policy, then Australiaand Canada must throw off the burdensome fetters which threatened tohand over the white man under the Union Jack, bound hand and foot, tothe Mongolians.
It was not easy to come to such a decision, and it was months before itwas finally reached. But one day, towards the end of August, the entireAustralian press advertised for volunteers for the American army.Thousands responded, and no one asked where the large sums of money camefrom with which these men were provided with arms and uniforms.
A vehement Japanese protest, sent by way of London, only elicited thereply that the Australian government had received no officialnotification of the enlistment of volunteers for the United States, andwas therefore not in a position to interfere in any such movement.
A feeling of joyous confidence reigned among the volunteers; they weregoing to take the field and fight for their big brother. The racialfeeling, so strong in every white man, had been aroused and couldwithstand any Mongolian attack. By October the first steamers ofvolunteers left for America. As there were no Japanese or Chinese spiesleft, and as the government kept a strict watch on the entire news andtelegraph service, the departure of the steamers remained concealed fromthe enemy. As Japanese ships were cruising in the Straits of Magellan,the route via Suez was chosen, and in due course the steamers arrivedsafely at Hampton Roads.
Wherever the conscience of the Anglo-Saxon race was not wrapped in balesof cotton and in stock quotations, wherever the feeling of Anglo-Saxonsolidarity still inspired the people, there was a stir. And so theobjections of the London government were not heeded in the colonies.
Why should the citizen of Canada, of British Columbia, care for DowningStreet's consideration for India, when he was suffering commerciallyfrom the yellow invasion just as much as the citizen of the UnitedStates, and when he realized that he would surely be the next victim ifthe Japanese should be victorious this time?
In this epoch-making hour of the world's history, England had neglectedher bounden duty, because she was indissolubly bound to Japan. By thesame right with which George Washington had once raised the flag, crowdsof men streamed across the frontier from Canada and British Columbia,and by that same right Ottawa now categorically demanded the removal ofthe Japanese ships from the harbor of Esquimault. "They must eitherlower their flag and disarm, or they must leave the harbor!" wrote theCanadian papers, and the Canadian Secretary of State, William Mackenzie,couched the protest which he sent to London in similar terms. It wasrecognized in London that threats were no longer of avail in the face ofthis spontaneous enthusiasm. England had staked much and lost.
Canadian and Australian regiments were soon found fighting side by sidewith their American brothers. And now at last, with the united good-willof two continents behind us, there was a fair prospect of the earlyrealization of the boastful words uttered by the American press at thebeginning of the war: "We'll drive the yellow monkeys into thePacific."