MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 77, 1 April 1913, Page 4

MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC.

The Australian Government is evidently prepared to take its responsibilities in the way of national defence very seriously; but we are not inclined to believe that Mr. Fisher's new naval programme in any way exceeds the requirements of the situation. Certainly, if the Commonwealth is to follow out the policy it has initiate-T'—dr-endeltvour to secure its own area of the Pacific and its own shores from the risk of attack, the building of another Dreadnought with three destroyers and submarines is a by no means unreasonable proposal. Of course the financial burdens inseparable from an independent naval policy must press heavily upon the Australian' people; for, as Mr. Fisher has shown, they are 'now contributing nearly twice as much per head of population as the New Zealanders every year for the purposes of naval defence. But whether the British Navy is to guard the Pacific, or

the task of Imperial defence, on this ! side of the world is now to be delej gated to local navies, this much at least is certain, that the control of the Pacific is a matter of vast importance' to England and the Empire, and that it must ultimately fall to the Power which can place the strongest fleet iv these waters, and hold its own against all comers. The future of the Pacific is to-day one of the great problems of international politics; and a sinister light is thrown upon the possibilities that it conceals by the thinly-veiled threat that Japan has just levelled at the Americans. The official intimation that Japan had intended to build a fleet strong enough to beat a certaiu nation, and to send a large fighting squadron into certain waters, which would be the scene of the next probable war, is ominous in the extreme. And it must be remembered that the Japanese Admiral's threat is no empty menace. From Homer Eca's "Valor of Ignorance," the American nation has learned the indisputable truth that if the Japanese once had command of the sea they could land on the Pacific coast of America 200,000 men in four weeks, nnd more than a million within a year; and once established in fortified positions west of the Roelcies, they could absolutely defy the. efforts of the American armies to dislodge them. There is no visionary vapouring about this prediction; and if these things happened they would assuredly change the course of the world's history- Nothing but a stTong navy will enable the Americans to retain the hold they have already secured upon the Pacific. And if it is true that the control of the Pacific must some day mean, as the most eminent exponents of the philosophy of history maintain, the mastery of the world, it is surely well for Australia and New Zealand and England to awake betimes to the vast possibilities that the problems of naval defence involve.