Bevieiv of P.erieu-f, 1/9/13. 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



^95 



Powers would pro1ial)Iy gladly co-oporatc. 

 But even then there stands in' tlie way tlio 

 absolute necessity foj- th(> Ytdlow races to 

 find an outlet for their t(>einiiig millions, 

 which must mean a terrible depression in the 

 standard of life of the White Man. 



Mr. Desmond has, fortunately, dis- 

 covered a way out of the threatened 

 danger, namel}', that the Yellow Man 

 should develop a magnificent altruism ! 

 He certamly will not do this unless he 

 IS clearly shown the reason for it, and 

 the advantages which would come to 

 him. Perhaps Mr. Desmond might ac- 

 cept the post of pioneer missionary to 



preach the gospel of altruism through- 

 out the Chinese Republic ! He says : — 



T]ier(^ is just one outlet from the impassp. 

 If, in •' tile liome of democracy," as tlie 

 East has been termed, the Yellow Man 

 sliould develo]) a magnificent altrui.sm and 

 rais<' his standard of living by wage and 

 other legislation to tlie level of the White — 

 whicli the Chinese Nationalist Party are con- 

 sidering — the danger of a war to enforce the 

 admission of cheap labour would be avoided, 

 thougli this wonkl be o])])osed to th(> history 

 of all national development. 



The disastrous alternative is a crash of 

 colour between a Pact of the AVhitn races 

 and a Yellow Federation, which would be a 

 crime against our common hunianitv. 



THE ROMANCE OF THE SEA DEEPS. 



Three comprehensi\e, scholarly works 

 on oceanography furnish the basis of 

 an article by Dr. E. A. Shipley, F.R.S., 

 in the EdinburgJi Revieiv. Dr. G. Her- 

 bert Fowler's " Science of the Sea," and 

 Mr. James Johnstone's " Life in the 

 Sea " are English University publica- 

 tions. " The Depths of the Ocean," by 

 Sir John IMurray, of the "Chanlenger " 

 Expedition, and Dr. Johan Hjort, Direc- 

 tor of the Norse Fisheries (MacMillan). 

 In his highly entertaining review of 

 these books. Dr. Shiple}- lures us with 

 this introduction : — 



The passengers and the crew of a liner 

 racing over the surface of the Atlantic 

 are apt to imagine that under them is a 

 vast layer of water of varying depth 

 sparsely inhabited by a few fish. As a 

 matter of fact the whole of this great 

 ocean is teeming with life. If, instead 

 of taking ship, we could take to the 

 water and walk across the bed of the 

 Atlantic to America, starting from the 

 shores of Western Europe, we should in 

 effect be travelling through a succession 

 of new countries. Not only would the 

 surrounding physical conditions vary as 

 we advanced, but the animal and plant 

 life would vary in correlation with ihc 

 altering physical conditions. 



He tells us how plant and animal life 

 changes with the depth to which we de- 

 scend. The deepest ocean pit yet 

 sounded is in the Pacific, we are in- 

 formed. It is 31,614 feet decj), or 2612 

 feet deeper than Mount Everest is high. 



The Atlantic has an average depth of 

 from 2000 to 3000 fathoms. Speaking 

 of the plant and animal life at low 

 levels, this writer tells us: — 



THREE TONS PRESSURE PER SQUARE 

 INCH ! 



These cold waters are ver\- still ; at 

 the bottom of the ocean there is a great 

 calm. The waves that churn the sur- 

 face overhead are unfelt at the depth of 

 a few fathoms ; even the great surface 

 currents which stream along the upper 

 waters of the ocean are hardh* percep- 

 tible below some 200 fathoms. There 

 are of course — as the wear and tear of 

 cables teach us — places where deep-sea 

 currents are strong ; but on the whole 

 the abysses of the sea are cold, noiseless, 

 and motionless. The monoton}' of the 

 surroundings is increased by the fact 

 that no diurnal or seasonal change 

 reaches those great depths. Summer 

 and winter, spring and autumn, are to 

 them unknciwii ; for them there is no 

 such tiling as night and da\-, seed-time 

 or harvest. Probabl\- the inhabitants of 

 these abysses breed all the }-ear round, 

 as land forms do in the tropics. There 

 we liiui insects and other animals show- 

 ing no seasonal change of life, eggs, 

 larv;e, chrysalises, imagoes all existing 

 at one and the same time. 



Deep-sea animals live at a tremendous 

 pressure. Ever\' five fathoms we de- 

 scend in the sc.i the pressure increases 



