[To TUE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."1
.Sin,—Because a branch of the yellow race is now carrying ou a successful war on sea and land against one of the white nations of the West, it is supposed by some that, if finally successful, one result will be an armed advance of the whole yellow race against the white,—and this has been called " the yellow peril." The " advance " of the yellow race to which I propose to draw attention is not an armed advance, the result of a victory to Japan in the present war with Russia, but an advance which is the inevitable result of an evolution of races that has been going on almost since man first appeared on this earth. As regards the present war, it must be remembered that the white race, as represented by RUssia, is the aggressor ; Japan is on her defence, fighting for her life- and national existence.
At the dawn of history the races inhabiting this earth may be divided by colour distinctions into five groups,—" red," " white," "yellow," " black," and " brown." The evolution of mankind involves a struggle between these groups for posses- sion of the world, the fittest surviving. Whether these different grOups of the human race had originally one home and colour, which colour was changed in the course of countless ages to suit the circumstances of the new homes to which they 'migrated, or whether each group had its own home and colour and other special characteristics ab initio, can only be a matter of conjecture. What is usually called " the home of the human race " in Central Asia can only really be called " the home of civilisation." One thing we know which would appear to 'support the latter theory,—viz., there is an inherent antagonism between these groups amounting almost to a natural law which prevents them from living together in the same country and keeping their independence and separate identity. One group either exterminates, drives out, or "absOrbs the other; or, as in India, rules it for a time as an alien race. Let us see what is the teaching of history as regards this racial " fight. In North America the red race 'Ma almost disappeared before the white. In South America it is the same, though here, owing to a larger intermixture of races, there is a brown race, which, however, calls itself white. What the 'future of the imported negro race will be is a question 'whiCh it is not 'easy to predict. Everything points to 'exter- mination or expulsion, for the character and anti-race feeling of the white race preclude absorption. In so much of South Africa as is a white man's country the native races are
• being displaced. In Australia the blacks, save a few tribes in a degraded state, have Passed away, and soon the race will be extinct. The brown man has made a better stand simply because he Mostly, inhabits countries where the white man cannot take up a permanent abode. The white man can only displace the coloured races when he can in every way take their place. In every case where the white race has met the brown and red, and it was a white man's country—that is, a country where the white man can live, labour, and reproduce himself without deterioration—the coloured races have been displaced.
In the West and South, therefore, we find the white race dominant and advancing, and the red, black, and brown either nearly extinct or decadent. In the East a very different state of affairs meets us. Here, although the white man has este.)). lished political rule in several countries, he has not displaced the native races, for he cannot get on without them nor take their place. The East is not really a white man's country. The white man comes and goes, but he does not take root in the soil. Here the white and yellow races came face to face for the first time, and with small advantage to the white. What the white man has done in the West and South, the yellow man, whenever he has emerged from his seclusion, has done in the East, and the racial struggle of the future will be between these two. Singapore and Penang are practically Chinese towns. In the Malay Protected States the shops and mines are in the bands of Chinamen, and they are fast acquiring so much of the laud as is worth having, whilst the native Malaya stand by idle, sullen, proud, and decadent. Here, as in India, the white man rules but does not really possess ; the yellow man is fast gaining possession, and will soon want to rule also. China, the borne of the yellow race, has, so far as the civilisation of the West is concerned, been asleep for centuries, but the awakening is at hand. Japan, a branch of the yellow race, has wakened up in a generation to some purpose. It is a commonplace of history that a people usually have the kind of government they deserve, but this does not imply that it is the kind of government best suited to their needs or the kind they desire. If a people choose to put up with a bad, corrupt government, it is because they are not sufficiently advanced to make a united effort to get a better. There is an evolution of governments as well as of races and individuals. The initiative in the desire for better things is usually with the individual, then it passes to the community, and the community forces its will on the rulers. He with whom was the initiative may be at the top or bottom of the social scale. He may be a ruler or noble, or a poor peasant who has a soul seeking after better things for himself and his fellows: If it begins at the top, the movement will be quick and immediately effective, as in Japan; if at the bottom, as in China, it will be slow, 'secret, spasmodic, and in its course temporarily destructive, but none the less effective in the end. There is unrest in China and a desire for a better government. China is conservative and slow to move, but this will make the move- ment more effective and lasting when it does come. It is not to be thought that in view of the great onward movement towards a higher standard of government by the nations, and especially iu view of what Japan, a branch of the same yellow race, has done, China alone will always stand still. China will realise that it was by adopting and applying what was best in the civilisation of the West that Japan, on whom she used to look with contempt, was able to take her place as a first-class world-Power and defeat the feared and bated Russian on sea and land. Every one who knows China appreciates the potentiality of the race and the great future before it.
In America and Australia the white man has shown his fear of the yellow by passing exclusion laws against him. In South Africa the white man first displaced the blabk, and then, finding he could not do the work of the country alone, he has called in the yellow race. At present the Chinamen are brought in under restrictions. They are not to engage in any work save mining; they are not allowed outside the camps, nor can they settle in the country after their tertn of service is over ; they are sent back to China. All these restrictions show the same fear as in America and Australia. How long will they be effective ? Just so long as the Chinaman chooses. He is at present having what he would call " a look see," and his numbers are few. The whole of China is permeated by secret societies, and the Chinamen have a power of combination well known to all who have had to do with their management. They will carry all this 'with them to South Africa. It may be possible to hold a small number in leading-strings, but when it comes to fifty 'or a hundred thousand who will act together as one man, how are they to be coerced should they refuse to stay in camp or return to China ? Before the foundations of Rome were laid there was a homo- geneous people dwelling in.China with a form of government and no mean degree of civilisation. Rome flourished for eleven centuries and became the Empire of the Western World, then decayed and passed away, and her civilisation became the heritage of others. But China remains as a united Empire to this day. In this marvellous continuity in the past lies the promise of the future. It took the nations of Europe two thousand years to advance from barbarism to their present position. It took the Japanese, a branch of the yellow race, a generation to adopt and apply all the best results of this long struggle. We are told that when the present Emperor of Japan was a boy the sort of training that was supposed to fit him for the part be was to be allowed to take in the government of his country was making artificial flowers. He is only now just over middle age, yet he rules as a constitu- tional Monarch over an Empire with which the most powerful and most advanced Empire of the West was glad to form an Alliance as with an equal. His Navy has driven the Russian flag from the China seas. On land the tactics and strategy, the endurance, self-sacrifice, and bravery, the care for the wounded in the field, and the splendid hospital arrangements of the Japanese Army are the admiration of the civilised world. In the world's history there is nothing like the advance of Japan in the last generation. We see some of the results of the adoption of the civilisation of the West by thirty millions of the yellow race. Will any one who really knows him venture to say that the Chinaman is less well equipped mentally and physically than the Japanese ? What, then, will be the result when the five hundred millions of China follow the example of their kindred of Japan ? On the northern borders of China the white and yellow races have been face to face for some time, and the advantage appeared to be with the white. But the tide soon turned, and to-day the aggressive armies of the white Czar, under his ablest generals, have bad to retire hopelessly beaten before the yellow race. These are the long shadows which the coming event—the advance of the yellow race—casts before it for the information of those who care to see.
. The white race can only live, flourish, and reproduce itself without deterioration in countries where it can labour without the help of coloured races—i.e., in cold or temperate climates —therefore the sphere of its existence is limited. On the other hand, the yellow race can live, work, thrive, and repro- duce itself without deterioration in any country in the world. The yellow man can adapt himself to his surroundings, whether it be the cold of the North or the beat of the Tropics. His equipment is all in his favour. He is intelligent, hardy, frugal, and industrious, and his instincts are those of the permanent settler. The Chinese branch of the race never were fighters. They left fighting to others, and went on cultivating the soil, reaping where they had sown. The phrase " the meek shall inherit the earth " has a more extended meaning and application than it usually obtains, and the history of China is proof of its truth. Timur and Ghengis Khan, and the many others who invaded China, were not of the meek of the earth. Their Empires have passed away like a tale that is told, and hardly a trace of them is left; but the Chinaman remains still where history first . finds him.. The Chinese are not by instinct a fighting race (though they may well be trained to war, as Gordon's " Ever Victorious Army " proved), yet they are a dominant race withal. If a Chinaman marries a white woman in Australia or America, or a Malay woman in the Straits, the children take after the father, hardly ever after the mother. Horde after horde from the North and West invaded and conquered China ; alien dynasty after alien dynasty occupied the throne ; but it had but a passing and superficial effect on the Chinese. The Chinaman did not adopt the ways or language of the conquerors ; they adopted his, and often became more .Chinese than the aborigine. The successive invading hordes were absorbed by the. Chinese as rivers are absorbed by the sea, and the Chinaman always remained. . Every one who has been to China knows bow he felt himself fascinated and dominated by the land and its people. The teeming millions of China will not always stay at home, and the nations of the world cannot always go on shutting their doors against them.
The final racial fight will be between the white and yellow races. But it will be a " war of peace," unless the white race chooses, as in the present war, to make it other. It is a signifi- cant fact that the white, black, and red races are on the decrease all over the world, and the yellow race is increasing. This world existed probably for countless ages before the first man appeared on it—where his home was, and what his colour, who can say ?—and it may exist for countless ages after the last man has passed away ; but everything points to that last man being of the yellow race.—I am, Sir, &c., C.
[We publish our correspondent's interesting and suggestive paper, though we think be somewhat exaggerates in what he says as to the Chinese. Nor can we accept his much too wide and general statement that the white race is decreasing. Taken as a whole, the white race is increasing, though some sections of it may temporarily be stationary, or even decreasing. It would be very rash, however, to say that such phenomena will be lasting, even in the extreme case of France.—En. Spectator.]
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