England, they are endeavouring to improve the conditions of sea service in order to encourage the employment of British seamen. The clause prohibiting the employment of black labour upon mail steamers may have been an awkward step in this direction, but if this has any substantial influence in excluding British lascars from employment—which, seeing that most black crews are Arabs or Malays, is open to grave doubt—the door is always open for negotiations to the Indian Government; since Australians would achieve their object equally well by insisting that the equipment of all subsidized steamers should be up to a prescribed standard in order to insure the efficiency and proper treatment of the crew.
The employment of black labour upon shore stands upon a different footing. Upon this part of the White Labour Policy there can be no compromise, because if black labour gains any footing upon the continent, either the low standard of living will depress the higher with unerring certainty, just as under Gresham's law bad money always drives good money out of circulation, or there will be a section of the continent peopled by white masters and black slaves whose instincts and interests will always be antagonistic to the rest of the Commonwealth. It is true that the tropical portions of Australia may remain undeveloped in consequence for many years; but Australians are prepared to make this sacrifice rather than endure the evils of a mixed race or create in the North a repetition of those Southern difficulties which nearly severed the United States. At the same time, the policy is administered with due regard to the susceptibilities of foreign States. No respectable traveller is excluded or in any way inconvenienced on account of his colour. Thus, Indian potentates pay visits to Australia without any restrictions; and during the four months the Labour Party was in office arrangements were made with the Japanese Empire to admit Japanese merchants, students, or visitors, who were furnished with proper credentials from their
