Curiosity Corner #123 The Great White Fleet

Another image of the US armada, as it passes the West Australian Coast 1908.

Two points of interest.

It shows the excursion steamer "Westralian" off
Rottnest Island a popular weekend resort for us "Sandgropers".
It was so named because the early explorers confused the local
fauna (Quokkas) as giant rats, when first sighted. Hence "Rats Nest Island"

The "Westralian" steamer had a colourful history, her life began as a Packetboat
servicing the Isle of Man and originally named as the "Manx Fairy".
She arrived in Australia in the late 1890's. She was re-built, and renamed the
"Westralian" in 1905, then as an excursion steamer plying the Fremantle-Rottnest run.
In the 1920's she was sent to Tasmania to carry fruit.

Oops!

http://groups.msn.com/Stamps/shoebox...to&PhotoID=504

I have a page related to the prior Auckland visit of the fleet at

http://www.100megsfree3.com/glaw/gwf/index.htm

Lots of postcards - a virtual collection. The net often has cards for sale
relating to stops in San Francisco, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne and Japan.

The fleet was not called the great white fleet at the time - it was a later
usage.



"Rodney" wrote in message
...
Another image of the US armada, as it passes the West Australian Coast
1908.

Two points of interest.

It shows the excursion steamer "Westralian" off
Rottnest Island a popular weekend resort for us "Sandgropers".
It was so named because the early explorers confused the local
fauna (Quokkas) as giant rats, when first sighted. Hence "Rats Nest
Island"

The "Westralian" steamer had a colourful history, her life began as a
Packetboat
servicing the Isle of Man and originally named as the "Manx Fairy".
She arrived in Australia in the late 1890's. She was re-built, and renamed
the
"Westralian" in 1905, then as an excursion steamer plying the
Fremantle-Rottnest run.
In the 1920's she was sent to Tasmania to carry fruit.

I see you have refreshed the page since I last viewed it.

Coincidentally, at the weekend boot sale, I found a 1907 "Australia Junior"
magazine, which was particularly fortunate, as it is a magazine
with cynosure on our national football game, which at that stage was barely
50 years old. It is a fascinating insight of those times.

Inside we find the rhetoric of those times, which makes painful reading,
and illustrates the racism, that was prevalent during this period, and
your comments of the fear of the Japanese are there in black and white.

I have read article on the Kangaroo and Map series stamps being
an extension of the "White Australia policy" and this little piece
makes the story easier to believe.
Remember these words of division were being expounded to the readership
probably of lads between 14 and 21 years of age.

http://groups.msn.com/Stamps/shoebox...to&PhotoID=505

"Rodney" wrote in message ...
I see you have refreshed the page since I last viewed it.

Coincidentally, at the weekend boot sale, I found a 1907 "Australia Junior"
magazine, which was particularly fortunate, as it is a magazine
with cynosure on our national football game, which at that stage was barely
50 years old. It is a fascinating insight of those times.

Inside we find the rhetoric of those times, which makes painful reading,
and illustrates the racism, that was prevalent during this period, and
your comments of the fear of the Japanese are there in black and white.

I have read article on the Kangaroo and Map series stamps being
an extension of the "White Australia policy" and this little piece
makes the story easier to believe.
Remember these words of division were being expounded to the readership
probably of lads between 14 and 21 years of age.

http://groups.msn.com/Stamps/shoebox...to&PhotoID=505


Rodney:

This is the kind of writing that sends a shiver down my back.
It is all the more ironic, since Japan was an ally in WWI.

Japan and the World War I Era
To the amazement of the major powers, Japan had soundly defeated the
Russian imperial forces in the Russo-Japanese War (1905) and emerged
as the only industrialized society in the Far East. Despite this
enhancement of prestige and prosperity, the Japanese faced several
nagging problems:


Lack of Respect. Japan's victory over Russia had failed to wrest the
ardently desired reparations payments. Theodore Roosevelt, the chief
peace negotiator at the end of the war, had opposed the imposition of
a heavy financial burden on reeling Russia. The Japanese were counting
on Russian payments as a means to reduce a huge debt incurred during
the conflict.
Further, Japanese sensibilities had been rubbed raw by a series of
insults from the United States, where, among other things, Asians in
California were segregated in public schools and prohibited from
owning land.

In the eyes of many Japanese, the war had foisted upon their nation a
staggering financial obligation and little international respect.


Lack of Raw Materials. Japan was an emerging industrial power in the
early 20th century, but lacked sufficient domestic supplies of iron
and coal to sustain its desired development.

Lack of Food. As the Japanese population expanded in the early 1900s,
it became clear that the nation's limited supply of arable land was
incapable of supplying sufficient food.

Lack of Land. Japan, a nation of islands, believed that it was
approaching its maximum density and continued to cast hungry glances
at the Asian mainland as a potential target of expansion.
The major powers of Europe were reluctant to allow Japan to share in
their exploitation of China, but the triumph over Russia brought Japan
primacy in Korea and increased influence in southern Manchuria. In
Korea, the Japanese forced the abdication of the king and installed
their own governor. The latter's assassination in 1909 led to the
formal annexation of Korea the following year. In China, the Japanese
reluctantly paid lip service to the Open Door Policy, but longed to
increase their influence at the expense of the resident European
imperial powers or the Chinese themselves.

When war erupted in Europe in August 1914, Japan promptly sided with
the Allies and issued a declaration of war on Germany. Japanese
activity during the conflict was noteworthy in three respects:


The Occupation of German Possessions. Japan took advantage of the
major belligerents' preoccupation with the war in Europe to seize
German holdings on the Shantung (Shandong) Peninsula of China. They
also took possession of the Kaiser's western Pacific islands — the
Marianas, Carolines and Marshalls.
China made a feeble attempt to use wartime confusion as a means to
regain control over some of its occupied lands, but a bellicose
Japanese government issued its far-reaching Twenty-One Demands to
squelch any Chinese resurgence.

The Japanese had a strong postwar case justifying their hold on German
Pacific possessions. Foremost, they enjoyed actual physical possession
and they also had concluded a secret agreement with Britain that
essentially divided German island holdings between the two powers at
the equator; Britain was to take islands to the south and Japan those
to the north.

In Paris, such agreements ran counter to Woodrow Wilson's principle of
national self-determination. In the end, however, the American
president compromised, allowing Japan to maintain economic rights on
the Shantung Peninsula, subject to the later return of the area to
Chinese control. The North Pacific German island holdings were granted
to Japan under the newly created mandate system.


Development of Heavy Industry. The insatiable demands of the Allies
for war matériel and other industrial goods created a tremendous
industrial boom in Japan. The resulting trade was extremely valuable
to the Allies and highly profitable for Japan.

Siberian Intervention. Following the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) and
the Russian conclusion of a separate peace with Germany (1918), the
Allied powers dispatched an expeditionary force to Siberia. The
primary aims of this venture were to retrieve war matériel that was
now available to both the Bolsheviks and the Germans, and give support
to anti-communist Russian forces fighting for control of the country.
The overwhelming size of the Japanese force and its leaders'
reluctance to withdraw from Russia further alienated the other Allied
nations.

Japan's Legacy from World War I

Many Japanese regarded their country's participation in the war as a
great success. All sectors of the economy boomed as Japanese industry
responded to the demands of the Allied war machines. Increasingly,
too, Japanese products found their way into other Asian markets left
untended by the warring European powers. This economic euphoria was
tempered somewhat at home by increasing labor-management strife and
the emergence of a vocal leftist political movement.

Elsewhere, Japan was viewed with either suspicion or hatred. The
Koreans and Chinese deeply resented Japanese incursions; these
resentments would fester through the 1920s. Other Allied governments
protested Japanese opportunism during the war, but to no avail. In
spite of their misgivings, the Allies recognized Japan as a great
power and made that nation a full partner in the negotiations at Paris
in 1919. Japan was rewarded with mandates over the islands seized
during the war, but it failed to gain a highly desired statement on
racial equality in the Covenant of the League of Nations. Britain
opposed the latter statement, largely because of its fear that it
would incite equality or independence movements within its own vast
empire. Wilson was fairly sympathetic to the Japanese request, but
gave in to British pressure; the United States abstained on the vote
on racial equality — the equivalent of a vote against. This action was
tucked away by the Japanese in their growing list of real or imagined
slights.

Japan joined the League of Nations in 1920 and served as a permanent
member of the Council. In 1922, the Japanese participated in the
Washington Conference, an international effort to slow the naval arms
race.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course many stamps , discussed in other posts here, came about as a
result of these events.


Blair

"Rodney" wrote in message
...
Another image of the US armada, as it passes the West Australian Coast
1908.

Two points of interest.

It shows the excursion steamer "Westralian" off
Rottnest Island a popular weekend resort for us "Sandgropers".
It was so named because the early explorers confused the local
fauna (Quokkas) as giant rats, when first sighted. Hence "Rats Nest
Island"

The "Westralian" steamer had a colourful history, her life began as a
Packetboat
servicing the Isle of Man and originally named as the "Manx Fairy".
She arrived in Australia in the late 1890's. She was re-built, and renamed
the
"Westralian" in 1905, then as an excursion steamer plying the
Fremantle-Rottnest run.
In the 1920's she was sent to Tasmania to carry fruit.


Rod

I spent a most enjoyable 3 days on Rottnest 5 years ago, and it was
fascinating sitting in the village square at night watching large numbers of
quokkas doing what quokkas have to do.

Are there any Australian stamps that include a picture of a quokka, or is
Australia Post keeping the beast a secret known only to residents of the
Perth area and this ng?

Regards, Roger

G'day Roger
Not as far as I know.
I put "Agent Ransack" to work on my 2,500 stamp collection
under "Fauna" and there were 157 hits, none with Quokka. :-(

Did you know this little fellow swallows his food whole,
then later regurgitates it, and chews the cud.
Evolution in progress.

more he
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/sub...coloring.shtml

The best thing about Rottnest from what I remember was the Bakery. Mmmmmmmm

Rottnest has a dark past, the English sent the indigenous prisoners overseas
and there was a prison on the Island.

Regards.




| Rod
| I spent a most enjoyable 3 days on Rottnest 5 years ago, and it was
| fascinating sitting in the village square at night watching large numbers of
| quokkas doing what quokkas have to do.
| Are there any Australian stamps that include a picture of a quokka, or is
| Australia Post keeping the beast a secret known only to residents of the
| Perth area and this ng?
| Regards, Roger

Thanks Blair.
Any reply would be off topic, so I'll just appreciate
your reply.


| This is the kind of writing that sends a shiver down my back.
| It is all the more ironic, since Japan was an ally in WWI.

A haunting image of Rottnest 1890.
Check the size of the cells.

http://groups.msn.com/Stamps/shoebox...to&PhotoID=506

I find the headwear interesting, no doubt the Aboriginals would have had contact
with the inland Afghanistan Cameleers, and I wonder if that had some influence.