We are now informed that the new cruiser Yat-sen, which ts being built to the memory' of the tat" Dr. Sun Yat-sen by the Kiangnan Dock Engineering Works to the order of the Ministry of Navy, will be of the fast cruiser type. As stated, she will be of 1,500: tons displace ment: 270 ft. long: 82 ft. breadth: and she will hays a draught of 16) ft. When completed in 15 months' time at a cost of $1,200,000, the Yat-sen, will be capable of attaining a speed of 20 Kxnots per hour, and she will carry. nine six-inch' guns, four-inch guns, three-anti-aircraft gans, two guns. Pye six pounders, and eight machine "China's Demands on Austral reprinted from the "Sydney Mo ing Herald" and which appeared in "The North-China Daily News" recently, is an article which should compel many to think upon a question that will one day be of great import to the future re-Intions of the oldest and the youngest of the nations. Just as the world's attention has been focus. sed upon the Pacific as the sea of the future ¢o in proportion there has arisen a greater mutual interest between the peoples whose lands are washed by its waters.
Australia's first contact with Chinese came as a result of the lure for gold which followed the discovery of that precious metal in alluvial deposits. in New South. Wales and Victoria in the middle of the last century, when adventurers the world over rushed to the southern Eldorado. Was not golf iched up in the streets of Bendigo and nuggets to be found along the banks of the Macqua: And so it was that thousands southern (Kuangtung) Chinese, in whose veins flowed the blood adventuresome' junkmen, selves in a virgin lana tative, resourcefulness, perseverance and industry were th only aids to success and fortune Success Leads to' Jealousy It was only natural that the Chit ese should be the most successful miners, as a result of their persevere ance, patience and industry. Thi tuation became intolerable to many of the white miners and in course of time there occurred the old, old eqnfict which ensues "when man develops the gold lust. As a rest' of the riots in Victoria, thousands of Chinese miners rare repatriated their native country and the seeds were sown of a hostile attitude among many Australians against Chinese even to this day. But it is YJonly right to add that mad gold rush days wns have come to re points of the people whom they once condemned for their virtues, and have paid their tribute to the industry and love of peace of the Chinese pioneers and their descendants.
To those willing to Isbour, Aus tralia has always proved a land of plenty, and it was the success of the Chinese market gardeners and storekeepers, erstwhile miners, that] aroused the envy of those Australians who did not or could not income comparable to the despise yellow man. Australians are no' if they speak candidly, against Chinese so much because of reasons of race, but all along they have feared them for their efficiency—in terms of gathering in the elusive sover-ign. In tilling the soil the Chinese proved themselves experts.and even to-day produce the major share of the vegetables in competition with Australians and others who use the latest machine methods of production. Recently it was reported in the newspapers that four Chines: market gardeners of Sydney had realized £3,000 from their crop of tomatoes, while yet another syndicate of six men enriched themselves to the extent of £5,000 from growing cavliflowers for the metropolitan markets. As the season i: only from three to six months it needs no explanation to arrive at 4 conclusion as to why there is la certain quarters an anti-Chinese feeling. Regarding the Chinese merchants, it is needless for the writer to go into details: the fame of the Cantonese shopkeepers is world-wide.
Neglected by their Government Wherever the Chinese have gone overseas any success that has come to them has been been-through their own efforts, for the help that should have come to them from their own government officials has never been forthcoming. Their consular representatives were but mere figureheads, wielding no influence and, a majority of cases, they receives no salaries for years at a stretch. The overseas Chinese were prodigals left to their own resources, but withal they carried with them that love of country which resulted in the formation of guilds and secret societies binding them together: in brotherhood that was one day to strike at the clutching hands that had gripped their country by the throat and. were choking it nto death and decay.
jow Dr. Sun Yat-sen, with the id of the overseas Chinese, broke the power of the Manchu 'regime need not be told here: suffice to say that the pent-up feelings of the Chinese abroad were diverted into agitations for the removal of the Yestrietions which were placed upon them by unsympathetic authorities. A trifling example, but one. nevertheless discriminatory and, in the feelings of the awakened follower of the Kuomintang, intolerable, may be cited. It is that of apparent police persecution against Chinese found gambling and playing fan-tan practically every instance amongst their own people, whilst gambling in all forms amongst Australians goes on unceasingly and The situation is the more ludisrous when one realizes that Australian and Chinese probably are greatest gamblers Tattersall's Sweeps, drawn in Tas-state es, yet the governments collect stamp duty on all ticket Sold! And if one is lucky enough to draw a prize the taxation authorities calmly wink the other eye and ta off-their ten per cent! Then in matter of entry and re-entry int Australia, Chinese have to suffer indignities which no other people have to endure, and it is thi tion which undoubtedly raised by the Chinese Consul-General to the Commonwealth authorities, involving as it does merchants and' business-men who desire to foment trade between the two countries to each other's betterment.
'The White' Australia Policy Coming to the last item one arrives at a problem which is, to the rabid follower of the White Australia policy, a veritable snag. Those who know Australia need no: be told that that policy is as fixed the Constitution. Under present circumstances, and in view of the fact that Australia is the most ad-vaneed country socially and demo-erotically, it is -well that such a Policy should be enforced, but there a growing opinion in many quarters in both Australia and Greac Britain that the time is not far distant when changes will have to be made if the world is to move forward and not backward.
'A quarter of a continent as large Australia cannot remain for long. uninhabited. "The world to-day getting too fall to permit of vacuurns; economic forces surging along with the tide of nationalism wi break through and form a channel ing entry. The much debated question of white labour in the tropics, has. but one: side to it; the other is nothing less: than patriotism, fand pride of race. Scientists and: others like Professor Gritith Taylor are of the opinion that no- puce European stock can populate the northern portion of Australia and that the time will come when it would. be good policy to have a eacefol settlement of the territory by Asiatics, preferably Chinese, with safeguards, adequate or otherwise.
What would be' the: advantages of such 2 colonization of the north-territory of Australia by Chinese specially selected for such a of them. The British Empire "is far. from being, self-contained, and: though India is a large producer, more Empire. grown cotton is a vital need. Chi-[nese labourers and agriculturists with suitable Australian skilled labour and technicians would form. an admirable. combination that would turn the vast north of Aw tralia into a "field of cotton." 'Today' cotton grows wild in" mang parts of the territory, but there ha: been no attempt to grow it on a commercial scale because of the lack of Jabour and-the unsuitable climatic living conditions, But in the parts of Queensland suitable for white! settlement, cotton is now: being grown in increasings quantities,.of 0 quality. which. invariably brings higher price than middling: Ameri-~ can at Liverpool.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.