Chinese In The South Seas?

What Shall We Do With

An Insoluble Problem Which Keeps on Growing.

THERE is no more difficult problem confronting British Administrators in the Pacific than that of the Chinese.

Chinese communities now are estab lished in New Guinea, the Solomons, and Fiji; and, to a lesser but growing ex tent, in Western Samoa. They are steadily increasing in numbers. What is to be done with them? The question— as has been pointed out repeatedly in these columns —must have attention.

The problem lies not so much in the Chinaman’s qualities of citizenship, as in the difficulties he creates for Euro pean colonisation and settlement. Take the position in New Guinea as a case in point.

The Australians did not introduce the Chinese to New Guinea —they are an accident of the war period. The Ger mans brought them in as indentured labourers, and it was understood that they would be repatriated. When the Australians took possession, in 1914, there were some 1300 Chinese there — men and women. For seven years, the status quo was maintained: and when Australia was given the Mandate in 1921, the Chinese were an established part of the Territory. They are settled down, not as labourers, but as artisans and small traders.

At first, Chinatown, in Rabaul, was a filthy, unattractive place, and the Chinese shopkeepers were regarded as of little account. Most of their stocks were brought through the local European merchants, and as the latter charged a necessary commission, Chinatown could not seriously undersell the European stores.

The first problem that presented it self was that of the Chinese trader. He began to penetrate the Territory, mak ing contact with native producers, and white traders had no chance against him. So a law was enforced, that no Chinese could hold a trader’s license.

But, within a few years, the Chinese definitely were undermining the Euro pean economic structure. The Chinese storekeepers in Rabaul (who are not under the embargo relating to trading licenses) began to purchase their re quirements direct from Australian ware houses, and also to import largely directly from China and Germany. Many scores—probably hundreds —of small Chinese traders outside of Rabaul began trading by the simple process of “dum mying”. Europeans were found who had no scruples in securing a trading license and, for a consideration, allowing the Chinese to operate it for them. It is a flagrant evasion of the law, but there seems to be no check on it.

In consequence, a large and growing proportion of the trade of the Territory is now carried on by Chinese; and a corresponding number of Europeans are squeezed out. The European trader can not compete with the Chinese. The dif ference between them is racial. It lies not in their respective industriousness or trading ability, but in their respective standards of living. A Chinese will live in a hut in some remote place and trade with the natives under conditions and on a margin of profit that are quite im possible so far as Europeans are con cerned.

If the Chinese were pathfinders and pioneers, this would not be so bad. But they are nothing of the sort. They are merely petty traders-camp-followers of the Europeans who tame the wilderness, extend agriculture establish industries and make contact with the aboriginal inhabitants. The white man opens the road, and makes the district safe, and then the yellow man, humble. Patient and industrious, comes in and estab lishes his trading station. The system is fair to the white man.

There is something to be said in favour of the Chinese community in Ra baul. A well-paved, clean, little town has replaced the former collection of malodorous hovels; the Chinese children are merry, intelligent and well-nour ished; and the Chinese people them

selves display a communal pride and spirit that are quite admirable. They not only keep shops of every descrip tion: they also supply European Rabaul with most of the usual artisan services - they are bakers, carpenters, tailors, cobblers, plumbers, barbers, etc. They are law-abiding-, and are honest and de pendable in business.

But the fundamental fact remains that their living standards are far below those of the European residents of New Guinea. Europeans cannot compete with them in commerce or as artisans. There fore, every Chinaman who grows to ma turity in New Guinea is going to deprive a European trader or artisan of a job.

Yet Europeans pioneered this country— European enterprise and capital are de veloping it. In the case of New Guinea, it is not too much to claim that the Australians are entitled to all the jobs and privileges which they have created in that Territory.

If the problem is examined in the light of experience elsewhere, it becomes even more baffling. In Malaya, the East Indies, Tahiti and Hawaii, Chinese have come in and robbed British, Dutch, French

and Americans respectively of many of the fruits of their enterprise: and they seem to have found the problem in soluble.

There seem to be only three ways to get rid of the Chinese in the South Seas: segregate them, deport them or murder them. And none of these methods

appeals to the average European ad ministrator. So humble Ah Fat goes patiently on, acquiring an ever-growing share of the Pacific Islands trade.

Blessed are the weak, for they shall in herit the earth!