Foreign Office. Fortunately, the Government of the Mikado is adverse to the immigration of Japanese labourers.
It is an error to suppose that the democratic party in Australia is opposed to immigration. Following the example of the United States, Canada, and Natal (which has since been followed also by the Cape Colony), the Commonwealth has determined to maintain its present standard of efficiency by excluding paupers, criminals, and other undesirables. The Commonwealth law upon this subject is almost textually the same as that of Canada, Natal, and the United States; while it is administered with so much more consideration to British interests that no white British subject has ever been excluded from Australia under its provisions. The same cannot be said of either the Dominion or South Africa. Yet both these countries are praised for their activity in attracting immigrants, while Australia, under the odium of 'The Six Hatters,' is blamed for excluding them! As a matter of fact, the first excess of arrivals over departures since the banking crisis of 1892 has occurred since the advent to power of the Labour Party. The excess, it is true, is small (1,889), but it marks the turn of the tide, and holds out promise for the future, when the Labour Party is sufficiently strong to overcome the State jealousy of Commonwealth action, and arrange an active immigration policy.
Nor is the attitude of the Labour Party less favourable to Imperial interests in other directions. They have steadily supported an effective system of national defence, under which every boy at school will be trained in the use of arms, from the belief that a citizen army is the best safeguard of democracy, and that a country which is worth living in is worth fighting for. In this respect they offer an admirable example to the Liberal Party in Great Britain. There is not the same unanimity about Preferential Trade, which, like Free Trade and Protection, has been left an open question by the party. Mr. Watson, however, its leader, is in hearty accord
