NOTES ON "A WHITE AUSTRALIA." 

 By A. Duckworth, f.e.e.s. 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, August 3, 1910.'] 



The Monroe Doctrine.-So long ago as December 1823, 

 President Monroe, in his annual message to the Congress 

 of the United States, made the statement that " we could 

 not view an interposition for oppressing the South American 

 States, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, 

 by any European power, in any other light than as a mani- 

 festation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United 

 States." Thus was the famous Monroe doctrine formulated, 

 which has since formed the rule for foreign intercourse 

 recognised by all parties in America. At the time, the 

 United States had but a population of some 9| millions, and 

 in the circumstances, this notable declaration of President 

 Monroe, as expressing an ideal policy, was one which has 

 increased in importance with the lapse of years. Now, in 

 our own continent of Australia, it has been laid down as a 

 principle, that our Australian territory should, presumably 

 chiefly in the interests of the working classes, be reserved 

 for people of the white races,— in other words, that a 

 " White Australia " is necessary. As regards the purely 

 political or party aspects of this question we have nothing 

 to do. There lies before us the wider economic problem, 

 whether the policy of a White Australia is feasible in fact, 

 in view of the present nature of the existing population 

 and of the diversified range of climates in Australia, and 

 of the proximity of coloured races to its shores. On the 

 question in its climatic and physiological aspects there 

 have been expressed very divergent opinions. It is of vital 

 importance therefore, that scientific inquiry be brought to 



