By the initiative of its inhabitants Australia was made a great laboratory for social reformš. Its remoteness from the chief centres of capitalism and from countries which send out their emigrants across the sea, offered the opportunity to exercise an effective control of the exchange of men and goods, even of ideas and thoughts in generál.

As the almost desert coast of tropical Australia is very inhospita-ble, it holds out no inducement to the members of the coloured Asiatic nations to found Settlements in the forbidden land, though far and wide there are no authorities capable of offering an effective resi-stance to their stealing into the country.

The geographical position of Australia almost in the centre of the oceanie hemisphere of the globe allows of the inhabitants exclu-ding and restricting what might imperii the realization of the ideals for which they have decided to strive. The rieh natural resources and the facilities in starting all kinds of industries make it comparatively easy to get over economic erises which in countries with a dense population and depending on the economic system 'of other countries would involve heavy losses and great risks.

At the time when international capital triumphed over the efforts to realize the socialist ideals in economically less independent countries, Australia succeeded in paving the way to the ideals of social equality; it made great sacrifices to emancipate from the bondages of economic imperialism, militarism and commercial materialism ruling Europe and America.

Doubtlessly, the struggle would have been easier without the Great War, in which Australia took part with all its might. The huge losses of blood and money upset the former very promising economic equilibrium, loaded the Commonwealth with public debt, and delayed the realization of the great and costly plans as railway construction and colonization, indispensable for the futurę prosperity of Australia. The inconsiderate aggressive proceedings of the extremists who tried to reVolutionize the existing social order and to introduce a kind of Russian bolshevism entailed a very bad erisis and complicated the whole financial and economic Situation of the Commonwealth as well as of each federal state.

From the standpoint of political geography Australia has quite an exceptional position. It is the only political unit comprising an entire continent, inhabited by one homogeneous nation. It is so remote from its neighbours, possible foes of to morrow, that with regard to national defence its position is its best protection. Besides it is a member of the greatest „Commonwealth of nations", the British Empire, and this is more of a support than words can express. If to-day Australia is the leading political factor in the South Western Pacific, it owes this more to its being a member of the British Empire than to its own virtue.