AUSTRALIA | 67 
influence also in the Sandwich Islands ; German aggression 
in Sanoa in New Guinea and the Marshall Islands; French 
interference in New Culedonia and the New Hebrides, have 
caused deep concern. Australian politicians have been 
untiring and vehement in their protests to the Colonial 
Office, but the effect of their representations, it must be 
confessed lias not been appreciable. The sphere of foreign 
influence in the Pacific as enlarged by almost imperéeptible 
degrees, and vot long ago au Australian Prime Minister 
awoke to the fact that there were sixteen foreign naval 
stations within easy striking distances of the country he 
rules. Distance is being annihilated, and the remote and 
peaceful Australian is now confronted by possibilities it 
was once fashionable to ridicule. ar 
‘In the words of a writer to whom I am indebted for . 
many of the facts contained in this paper: ‘‘ Australia to- 
day is halting on the path towards Imperial unity. Rightly 
or wrongly, the Australian believes that in order to enter 
into closer relations with the mother country he will have 
to lay aside that striving for race purity which is an 
instinct with him. Since the federation of the Australian 
states was accomplished, the whole history of the world has 
been re-written for Australia. A new power has grown up 
in the Pacific. In the sudden rise of Japan the Australian 
discerns the most sombre menace to all his cherished ideals. 
_ From the Australian’s point of view, the position is an intri- 
cate and delicate one. Almost inthe moment when the com- 
monwealth was deciding that the Japanese was not a desir. 
able citizen, and passing legislation to exclude him from the 
commonwealth territory, a stroke of British diplomacy 
exalted Japan to the position of an Imperial ally. The 
outbreak of the Eastern war followed, and from that time 
the Australian attitude towards Japan has been indefinable. 
The Australians love the Japanese at a distance They 
regard them as splendid fighting men, and creditable allies 
even to the mother couvtry. But these facts do not alter 
