ROBERTS ON NEW STRATEGICAL CONDITIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 202, 24 August 1904, Page 3

ROBERTS ON NEW STRATEGICAL CONDITIONS.

A lecture on "The ; New Pacific" from a Strategic Point of View " was delivered recently at the Royal United Service Institution. London, by Dr. T. Miller Maguire. Lord Roberts presided. The lecturer explainer) by means of J mops the strategic- position of the Brij tish Empire, insisting on the necessity : for a thorough appreciation of the eoni ditions of the Imperial defence, and of fhe resources of States like Russia, Germany, France, Japan, and the united States. He spoke of the indifterr.nce of Japan to sea power till awakened by bombardments in 1864. and said that sea power might lost part of its, signifie-anee by railway power. Never-! thele.ss, command of the sea. with power to employ efficient, expeditions, was at present the supreme condition of in- , ternationa.l power. He quoted Seward's saying in 1863 that Ci The Pacific Ocean, with its coasts aud islands, is destined to be the great theatre of the world's affairs." Napoleon's theory that the future, would be with America and Asia had been verified. Lord : Roberts, at the conclusion of the lecture, said: I have listened, as I am sure all present °here have listened. with the greatest interest to the lecture which has just been delivered. It was moat interesting and instructive. Dr. Maguire has taken us over a. vast expanse of country, and most valuable lessons are taught by his lecture. Time will not admit of my aJludirg to some of the many interesting points he has brought forward, but there is one point to which I would especially invite, your attention—namely, that it is to the' Pacific that the centre of international gravity has now shifted, and it is mainly in that direction that the dominating factors will be found when any serious fulure complications arise. In his lecture Dr. Maguire has very graphically explained to us how some 5 of the causes of this change have been quite phenomenal. If we look first to the western shore of the Pacific, to which our attention is now more immediately directed, we find in Japan peThape the most wonderful instance of a national new birth which history has recorded. Less than -iO years ago this comparatively small island was scarcely in touch with the outer world, and, strategically speaking, was a negligible quantity. To-day Japan is a nation whose alliance we are proud to possess, and who esteemed itself powerful enough to enter single-handed into a contest with the European Power \ which has the strongest army in the j whole world, and the bravery of whos? soldiers is only to be equalled by th«ir hardiness. Then, if we take Japan's great adversary, Russia, we find that about the same time, forty years ago, Russia's possessions in Uα? Far East were absolutely undeveloped. Within the last few years those possessions have been brought into direct communvation with St.. Petersburg by a railway close upon 6000 miles in length, and vast sums have been spent in gurieosdog and fortify-

ing the harbours which that railway feeds, in order to make use of them as bases for the very considerable fleet which Russia has thought proper to place in the western sea of the Pacific. Other nations have not kept aloof from I that region. France has possessed herself of the territory now known as In-do-Chijia. Great Britain has a<?qusred Hong-kong and Wei-hai-wci. and Germany Kiao-ehau. Further south we come to Australia. Less than 100 years ago Australia was considered an almost waterless waste, a fit place for a settlement of convicts. Now it is a flourishing continent, the colonies of which lour years ago nobly came to the aid of the Mother Country in her hour of need. If we cross over to the eastern waters of the Pacilic, we find precisely the same extraordinary development and progress, which also changes the old strategical conditions, whether in Columbia, with its potentialities of great wealth, in the mines of Alaska, or in the United States port of San Francisco; and to show the great importance of thePaeific. it is. as I daresay you know, connected with the Atlantic by no fewer than nine lines of direct railway communication. I believe a tenth is under consideration. But. valuable and important a-s these railways are from a strategical point of view, they will be surpassed when the canal is made in the Isthmus of Panama. That will indeed be a change of strategic conditions. If any further proof is required of the importance of the Pacifi.ee, I would call your attention to the fact that within the last two years two submarine cables have been laid from one shore to the other —the all-England cable from Vancouver to Australia and the United States cable from San Francisco to Manila. These are strategic matters, and no doubt they will be made more valuable by other cables bernjj laid. These cables, owing to their connexion with land telegraphs and otbev sxibmarine eaoles, have given the final link to the telegraphic girdle round tbe whole world. That is an important strategical condition of affairs which I think Dr Maguire has enabled us to appreciate by his very valuable lecture.