Whitehall Could Not Care Less!

[?]a’s Threat to Future Security of South Pacific Countries

London, in September, the Editor of the Pacific Islands Monthly addressed the following \r to the Editor of the London y Telegraph. ie Daily Telegraph that summer published all sorts of contri ons about the discovery of is* nests in hayricks, and the edness of manual workers who slow, and the importance of king claret at the correct tem ture; but it did not print one of the visitor’s letter, which was d on personal observations in y countries. e PIM man’s outstanding im non, after meeting many people ie United Kingdom, is that the ish generally are completely r ant of conditions in the South dc —and could not care less. the Editor of the Daily Velegraph, London: )n the eve of returning to ralia, and after visits to In sia, Singapore and Malaya, and ssions with all classes of people in England, I should like to ;ss the deep uneasiness of a official Australian observer at ignorance and indifference of British public towards events developments in the Far East, ar as they affect the South ic. luenced by the fact that it was f independence to India, Ceylon Burma (long before such a de ment was due), the British Gov ent in 1945-47 deserted its war allies, the Dutch, and allowed olitically immature Indonesians row the Dutch out of the East s, where they had been estab l for over 300 years. uenced by the school of ht so disastrously represented Ir. Malcolm MacDonald, the h have permitted the estab ent of near-independent gov snts in Singapore and Malaya, before the people concerned ntitled to them. > same British have sat with I hands while Chinese forces. or less Communist, have n the French out of Indo t, I idealistic planners imagined lat, as the Dutch moved out, ie Indonesians would take over administration, trade, planta and shipping. Actually, it is Chinese, not the Indonesians, are taking over in Indonesia tyself saw it happening.

MacDonald idealists imagine riendly little groups of Asians oing to run Singapore and a in future as part of the

British Commonwealth with tender regard for European residential and commercial rights It is a pity the British public could not have seen the thousands of young Chinese—socalled students —rushing around Singapore’s streets during the riots there in May, screeching Communist slogans and murdering any unpro- IS?bS^n 11 Ai? y vi* C ? Uld et their hands on. All history (ind Sf.i« aP w neSe P iQ r /o° r i?? n i es in the Pacific War in 1942-45) showed

that that is the measure of what Europeans can expect from Asians, once the Asian is on top.

Let there be no mistake—the Chinese are on the march, 600 millions of them. They appear rarely, if at all, in political organ isations; but they are the real power in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaya, Indo-China, and I do not think they now can be stopped.

The fate which overtook British people and interests in China in recent years surely will overtake all European interests in the remainder of Asia within a couple of decades.

For that, the British people affected can blame their rulers.

UT why should Australia, New Zealand and the large Islands Territories be sacrificed to tish blundering and weakness, [ British inability to visualise the :ome of their policies in South i? \ the 12 million English-speaking opeans in the South Pacific, and 2 million native Islanders in r care, are not to be extermin l by masses of Asians, South t Asia must be held firmly by □peans, and the Chinese must be allowed to take possession ndonesia.

'esent indications clearly are ; the British and French are ing Southeast Asia; the Dutch going rapidly from Indonesia t virtual land bridge between ay a and Australia); and within w years there will be nothing een us in the Pacific, and hungry and merciless masses of — except perhaps the power of United States. iat is the picture as it is seen ober Australian observers; and ;he horrors which it implies, I, one, blame the planners of ;ehall. Since World War 11, they seemed incapable of seeing hing beyond the nationalist tors of Asia—of looking beyond the South Pacific, where the *e of “the Britain of the South” nds upon the measures taken iduce the Asians to remain at * PER what I have seen person lly, in recent weeks, in South last Asia, and in London, I am jinion that it is too late now nything to be done by Britain isure the safety of the South ic against Asia; and history, sing the causes of the fumbling blundering Asian policies which led to this tragedy, will write T black mark indeed against :n so-called British “diplomats.” irt from the strength of North ica, I think our main hope of i now lies in the rapidity with i three great Asian races—the Jse, the Japanese and the

ns are developing their

ssive powers.

history means anything—and

all the only sure way of read he future of the races is to

me history—then sooner or

those Asian races will be in ct; and, maybe, they will for -3r a time the rich and com

ity empty and undeveloped

ries of the South Seas. But it

lender hope.

R. W. Robson.

dents who gained sports ies at the Queensland Agri ,al College in December in * I- Codrokadroka (champion e), Fiji; A. Hazelman, of Fiji• tomasi Tonga, of Tonga.