194 John Dillon on the Colonics [1908 



sure brought to bear upon him.' I told him what I had heard of 

 Asquith's intention of dissolving parliament, and he said he thought 

 it very likely, but it was not improbable the Liberals would be beaten 

 at the election. This brought us to general politics, and the rupture 

 there was sure to be between the Labour Party and the Liberals, 

 with an eventual division of the country into a Conservative party, 

 and a party more or less socialistic of opposition, such as there is in 

 Germany. Dillon is much more of a democrat than I am, though 

 neither of us is at all Socialist. Dillon is for Colonial Federation, 

 and is not without a tinge of Imperialism. He is a believer in the 

 ' Yellow Peril/ and thinks that the Colonies if left to themselves will 

 be sooner or later invaded by Asiatics. Australia and Canada, he says, 

 are rapidly becoming Catholic countries. I asked him the reason of 

 this, and he told me that in both Colonies, and for that matter in the 

 United States, the English colonists had left off breeding children and 

 so were dying out, whereas the Irish, French, and Italian colonists 

 continued to have large families. It was entirely owing to the influence 

 of the Catholic Church which forbade the use of restrictions. Dillon 

 avowed a strong belief in the Italians as ' a thoroughly virile race, 

 physically and intellectually, and that it will survive when others suc- 

 cumb, in spite of Lord Salisbury's ridiculous pronouncement about 

 the Latin races.' The Boers of South Africa are another vigorus 

 race for which he has the greatest admiration. He is for Colonial 

 Federation on their account. They would outlive the other white 

 races in South Africa, and the connection with England would pre- 

 serve them from trouble with Germany. He is entirely against the 

 Indians in the Transvaal, and has not much sympathy with the blacks ; 

 he would not agree with me when I said there would be recognized 

 slavery in South Africa before another generation was out. This 

 could only be by the extermination of the warlike tribes, but that is 

 just what I think will be done, when the feebler tribes will be reduced 

 to forced labour, perhaps on wages, but still forced. 



" As to India, Dillon professed to have no knowledge, but thought 

 that its connection with the British Empire could not long be pre- 

 served, in face of the awakening of the East through the successes of 

 [apan. His Imperialism only applies to the white Colonies. He 

 stopped to luncheon, but did not talk much himself as a Mr. Percy 

 Addleshaw had joined us, having come to see me, it so happened, to 

 talk about this very question of India. Addleshaw is an old pupil 

 and friend of York Powell's, in bad health, who has become ac- 

 quainted with some of the Indian leaders. 



' 10th Feb. — The Bellocs came to tea bringing with them Bron 

 Herbert, now Lord Lucas, as good and charming a young man as he 

 was ten years ago when I saw him last at Oldhouse. He tells me his 



