Given the strains that the Aborigines suffered from European encroachment on their lands and culture, Bates was convinced that they were a dying race. She believed that her mission was to record as much as she could about them before they disappeared. In a 1921 article in the "Sunday Times" (Perth), Bates advocated a "woman patrol" to prevent the movement of Aborigines from the Central Australian Reserve into settled areas, to prevent conflict and interracial unions. She later responded to criticism of her effort to keep the people separated, by civil-rights leader William Harris, Aborigine. He said that part-Aboriginal, mixed-race people could be of value to Australian society. But Bates wrote, "As to the half-castes, however early they may be taken and trained, with very few exceptions, the only good half-caste is a dead one."