The Australian mind is in a strange state of tension. Geographically Australia belongs to the Pacific; and she cannot therefore forget that immediately to her north there are teeming multitudes of Asia. There is a well-known limerick which runs:

There was a young lady of Ryde,

Who ate green apples and died;

The apples fermented inside the lamented,

And formed cider inside her inside.

In Asia there are the forces of resurgent Islam and nascent nationalism and aggressive Communism, all producing a heady ferment of nervous and excited xenophobia. Australia cannot forget this fact.

In thought and culture Australia belongs to the West. She was colonized mainly by British colonies, and her ties are still close with what is called ‘the old country.’ She is, therefore, an outpost of Western civilization in a predominantly Asian world.

But there is also Australia’s vested interest in America. This link was forged in the desperate Pacific battles of World War II, when Australia was threatened with imminent invasion. That military association has greatly accelerated Australia’s cultural and industrial dependence on the United States.

These different factors have resulted in strains and tensions. Australians cannot ignore the fact that Asia is on the march: and that geographically Australia belongs to Asia: but they cannot forget that their ties—religious, social, and cultural—are with Europe and America.

A number of churchmen have recently lent their powerful advocacy to an extension of the Colombo Plan. This plan was evolved to assist able students from Asia, selected by their governments, to undertake technical training in Australia. It was hoped that practical goodwill would thereby be created. Already many hundreds of students have been trained under the Colombo Plan, but its scope could be greatly extended. Recently speakers from the Roman Catholic church and the Protestant churches spoke on the same platform on this subject. There it was urged that the stronger have an inescapable obligation to bear the burdens of the weaker, and that all this, in relation to human misery and need, is an expression of Christian compassion and practical concern.

Related to this situation is the perpetuation of ‘the White Australia policy.’ This policy is a legacy from the nineteenth century. The opening of the gold fields last century was accompanied by a vast influx of new migrants, with the result that the population of Australia trebled within a single decade. On the gold fields there was increasing resentment at the number of Chinese workers (who, in proportion to the population, numbered no less than one in every twelve in 1849); and, among workers, there was a growing fear that both wages and conditions would be lowered by these coloured labourers.

Article continues below

The result was the passage of the Commonwealth Immigration Act of 1902 with its provision for a dictation test in any European language, for the purpose of excluding all Chinese, and secondarily, all coloured people. Theoretically the dictation test did not differentiate between people on the basis of race and colour, but this was clearly its intention. It was later extended to southern Europeans.

‘The White Australia Policy’ has been coming under more and more fire. Some time ago the National Missionary Council of Australia stated:

We believe that the purpose which has hitherto dictated the exclusion of Oriental migrants, namely, the maintenance of our standard of living and the unity of our population, can be achieved without giving that offence to the natural pride of certain peoples which our present policy is apt to do. However reasonable it may seem to us, the Oriental resents our consistent exclusion of the coloured man, because it suggests that we regard colour as a badge of inferiority. For this reason our policy is an irritant in the relationships of Australia with Oriental peoples, and is inimical to the neighbourly cooperation which it is in our interests to cultivate. We cannot afford to antagonize adjacent peoples with populations exceeding ours fifty fold, and with enormous potentialities in process of development. Should we not, therefore, reconsider the matter to discover some method of maintaining our living standards and the unity of our population without seeming to slight our neighbours.

Individual citizens, as well as churchmen, have pointed out that the present policy enshrines a doctrine of racial discrimination which is galling to the national susceptibilities of our nearest neighbours.

Some years ago the then Dean of Sydney stated:

We advocate, then, the introduction of the quota system, as a good-neighbourly measure of enlightened humanity and of common justice. We condemn the present policy as anachronistic, based as It is on the subterfuge of what is ostensibly a literary test. We recommend, in place of the negative dictation test, the substitution of the positive quota system, which will not be galling to the national pride and the legitimate sentiments of the peoples of the Pacific among whom we live.
Article continues below

This year the Federal government has abandoned the ‘dictation test,’ the operation of which had made Australia ridiculous in the eyes of the world, although migration to Australia is still restrictive and selective.

The instinct of self-preservation, however, has led Australia to embark on an ambitious migration policy since the conclusion of World War II. The slogan is ‘populate or perish.’ Australians are uneasy about the great unoccupied areas of the continent (many of them, admittedly, are nothing but barren desert); but it is widely believed that Australia could treble her present population. Since the conclusion of hostilities both British migrants and European migrants have been granted either ‘free’ or ‘assisted’ passages to Australia. The consequence is that now one in every seven of the population is a ‘new’ Australian.

The social consequences will be far-reaching. Already there is concern about the bearing of this influx of new migrants on the denominational balance of the Commonwealth. Protestant leaders are apprehensive lest the traditional Protestant character of this British Commonwealth be endangered or undermined by the wholesale immigration of southern Europeans. In fairness to the Federal government, it needs to be said that far greater inducements are held out to those of British stock who may be willing to immigrate to Australia—and British migrants are predominantly Protestant.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.

Our digital archives are a work in progress. Let us know if corrections need to be made.

Tags:
Issue: