4 INTELLECTUAL COOPERATION IN WAR-TIME AND PLANS ... 401British group asserted that the Western powers were in ‘full retreat’ from
the attitude of superiority that had so informed their relations with the
peoples of Asia in the past.^212
Along with French and Dutch members, the British members denied
‘the existence of race prejudice as an important factor in colonial pol-
icy.’^213 Certain members reminded the Indian group that ‘sharp class
and caste differentiation had existed in India long before British domi-
nation.’^214 They further pointed out that race discrimination existed in
both free and dependent countries: it prevailed as much in the United
States as it did in any of the Pacific dependencies.^215
A Chinese member joined the attack on the effort to frame the ques-
tion of racial prejudice largely in terms of European colonial policy on
the basis that ‘prejudices and discriminations similar to those between
white and non-white peoples’ affected social relations among Asian peo-
ples.^216 In this connection, the Chinese member drew attention to the
painful experiences of Chinese residents in Thailand. The Thai mem-
ber then observed that the discriminations to which the Chinese mem-
ber alluded had their basis in economic concerns and were not at all
based in racial prejudice. As the summary of the conference proceed-
ings noted, this was the same argument that an Australian member had
mounted earlier at the conference in defence of the administration of
Australia’s immigration law. It is telling, however, of the changing tide
of international opinion that the same Australian member had gone on
to concede that Australia would have to reappraise its immigration pol-
icy after the war ‘in order that the relevant laws and regulations should
more fully express the racially non-discriminatory nature of the essential
restriction.’^217
The Chinese members were dissatisfied by the Thai members response to
the observation that Chinese residents in Thailand experienced discrimina-
tion. They insisted that the discriminations experienced by Chinese nation-
als in Thailand ‘and in other countries of the Nan Yang were not limited
(^212) International Secretariat, Institute of Pacific Relations, Security in the Pacific, 77.
(^213) Ibid., 77.
(^214) Ibid., 69.
(^215) Ibid., 70.
(^216) Ibid., 71.
(^217) Ibid.