Asia And The South Pacific
pp. 29-135 · Read in the full issue
Fears Expressed About Intentions of India
A STUDY of political, social and commercial developments in 1953 indicates that the Asiatic countries which increasingly menace the future security of South Pacific (European) countries, in their order nf importance, are: • JAPAN, which is returning with growing urgency to its demand that room shall be made in the South Pacific lands for its huge surplus population. • HINDUSTANI, which is be lieved by some to be deliberately plotting against the British in the lands fronting the Indian Ocean and some parts of the Pacific, so as to provide a place for surplus Indian population. • CHINA, which is now working secretly through some Indo- Pacific Chinese communities for the spreading of Communism and the ultimate overthrow of the Western European authority. • INDONESIA, which is in a con dition of politico-economic col lapse, and may thereby open the way to the establishment of Communism.
The Philippines are so seriously >enetrated by politico-economic cor ruption that that country is almost ;omparable with Indonesia. But Philippines are under the domination )f the United States, which will not permit Communism to over-run Philippines as in Indonesia, where here is no dominant power.
In the above analysis, the new md surprising factor is Hindustani, >r India. We never have been mder any misapprehension about Japan—that country, if opportunity )ffers, will surely return to the South Pacific, and as surely will :nslave or exterminate the European nopulations. The events of 1940-45 showed us what to expect. The \siatic can no more change his lature than the leopard can rid nimself of his spots.
JAPAN, already, is on the job.
Japan is pleading with the victors of World War II for a ittle understanding and help in the atal problem of providing for an 30-millions population that grows )y more than one million each year. \ group of Tokio business men is 'eported to have announced that it vill pay Australia and Netherlands some £3,000,000,000 for the island continent of New Guinea. Another >roup has said that Australia and Netherlands must be forced to open New Guinea to Asiatic immigration.
Without navy, army or air force, Japan is no more a threat to our security at present than is Indo nesia, which insists periodically [whenever the political situation sets sticky) that “Dutch New Guinea must and shall be Indo nesian.” But we dare not forget the hreat. If anything happens to keep
Britain and United States deeply engaged elsewhere, Japan within a year could build enough armaments to challenge Australia, which then would be the South Pacific s only guardian.
IT is with Hindustani that this 1 survey is primarily concerned— our fellow member ;n the British Commonwealth of Nations. Suspicion of Hindustani’s good faith is growing, and not without reason. It is
th? g Hiridni? C pncoiira ’
BHtis?eSments f n ?helndo-PaSfic
vf™ 2 mlv be nushed P out and Indians tag their P pface ’
The London Daily Express, in a series of startling disclosures in January, made the following charges- India’s High Commissioner in East Africa, a Mr. Pant, was recalled after the Governor-General of Kenya, Sir Lawrence Baring, had protested to Delhi, alleging that Mr.
Pant was responsible for much of the propaganda carried out by Indians among Africans, wherein the Africans were urged to follow India’s example and liberate themselves from the British. The Daily Express says: “Delhi radio broadcasts daily in
African dialects, exaggerating every incident of African defiance or dis obedience. Indian merchants are financing the African opposition Press, and even the Mau Mau.”
This is in line with what is known about growing anti-European senti ment among the large Indian com munities in British East Africa generally, in Madagascar, in Natal, and in Mauritius.
Conditions in Mauritius are of significance to us in the South Pacific. There is a parallel between the sugar-producing island of Mauritius and the sugar-growing island of Fiji, where there now is a predominantly Indian population.
According to Mr. Ssfton Delmer. a special correspondent sent by the Daily Express to Mauritius, half the population of Mauritius are Hindus, who are dominated by the “Indian led and Indian-financed Labour Party.”
He says the latter is “one of the most sinister Marxist machines out side the Iron Curtain,” and alleges it is working for Indian domination cf the colony and a Marxist Socialis e revolution in its economic and social set-up.”
Mr. Delmer says:—“lf Indian plans are allowed to go unchecked in Mauritius it will encourage and help their take-over ambitions in many other parts of the Colonial Empire where large groups of Indian immigrants are among the inhab itants.”
(Continued on Page 133)
Labour officials whom Mr. Delmer nterviewed denied Communist ympathies but the correspondent asserts: “Like Jagan’s party in British Guiana they are fighting nth every weapon the order for iidding Communist and subversive iterature “Even if, as seems likely, they lave no connection with Moscow md Peking, everything they say ind do is helping Communism.”
The Daily Express editorially lays: Britain should now demand he withdrawal of India’s High Commissioner in Mauritius, Mr. *.nand Sahay, who among other ictivities, told the Daily Worker, ‘Jagan is the most intelligent and •esponsible man in the whole of West Indies politics.”
There is no evidence whatever of my similar situation in Fiji. Present ndications are that, if there are inti-British tendencies there, they ire kept in check by an intelligent lection of the Fiji-born Indians, and Dy the small Moslem element. But, if . Hindustani continues to drift iway from its Commonwealth Dbligations, developments like those in Mauritius are possible in Fiji.
Many little incidents of the past year or two have given the im pression that Hindustani, under Prime Minister Nehru, is not a de pendable partner of Britain, no more than is Eire. If World War 111 should come along, it is probable that Hindustani will be officially neutral, with a strong leaning to wards Red China.
Hindustani has a population pro blem just as acute as that of Japan and China, and is as eager as they to see the Europeans out of the Indo- Pacific region.
These Asiatic countries, instead of exercising the God-given faculty of reason, and limiting their birth rate, prefer the animal method of unrestricted breeding, with the animal concomitant of swarming over into other lands, and extermin ating the populations already estab lished there.
CHINA, of course, is in a different category. China is behind the Iron Curtain, under Russian .domination and, while the Cold War lasts, China is at least our potential enemy. She is allied with Communist nations in a determin ation to destroy the structure of Western civilisation.
Should that structure disappear, the Reds would immediately move into Africa, Australia and the South Pacific countries, and establish their own regime; and in our case we should disappear under a flood of Asiatics, giving mouth service to Communism, but actuated only by the desire to establish themselves in new, empty countries.
The Chinese, like the Hindus, already have strong implantations
in the Indo-Pacific region—notably in Malaya, Indonesia, New Guinea and Tahiti. Generally, they are silent communities, and politically inactive —that is especially the case in New Guinea, Fiji and Tahiti. But there appear to be channels of com munication open between Red China and most of these Indo-Pacific com munities; and, if Red China should enter World War 111 besides Russia, these communities would call for a lot of attention.
IT Mr. Sutherland, manager of Cable & Wireless, at Fanning Island, completed his term in December and departed per Wairuna. His successor, Mr. Guthrie, arrived by the same vessel from Australia.
II Mr. J. E. Brundell, British Dis trict Officer at Canton Island, with his wife and daughter, left the Island per Kia Kia in January, en route to New Zealand, via Tarawa, on pre-resignation leave.
U Latu and Atele, two Samoan boys, recently have achieved some success in Sydney as radio and nightclub entertainers. They arrived in Syd ney in January and their presenta tions of Samoan songs were so popular with Australian audiences that they recently “cut” their first recording—two compositions by Mrs.
Rstzlaff, a member of the well known Nelson family, of Western Samoa. Mrs. Retzlaff (known pro fessionally as Billie Nelson) was ex pected in Sydney on February 18.