THE OCEAN AT OUR DOORS

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 194, 18 August 1933, Page 6

THE OCEAN AT OUR DOORS

In the New Zealand volume of the Cambridge "History of the British Empire" lately reviewed in this column Dr. 'Macmillan Brown repeated his frequently-expressed thought that if 6ver there was a country destined to breed an oceanic race it is New Zealand. He has faith in a time when the outlook of this Dominion "may be as great in the Pacific as that of the "still smaller Elizabethan England was in the Atlantic." No man is so well qualified as Dr. Brown to take a wide and experienced view of the Pacific and its racial, political and commercial problems. It is a pity that our politicians, who inevitably will have to face the questions of changing conditions and the conflict of national interests in tho Pacific, are so unconcerned about the present and future in Oceania and so unversed in the story of the past and the looming new developments which may intimately affect us in New Zealand.

As to New Zealand's present and future, considered as the oceanic race of Dr. Brown's picture, our position does not at present indicate the spirit of Elizabethan enterprise which made England great overseas. This country has a considerable interest in the South Seas, with dependencies and mandated islands extending to within eight degrees of the equator. But so far as trade is concerned, and the extent to which young New Zealanders are engaged in the Pacific maritime business, the position of this country is less satisfactory than it was forty years ago. Trade has dwindled, far fewer vessels and men are engaged in the sea trade, communication between Auckland and the Pacific Islands is not so good as it was in our earlier days, traffic is more restricted. Auckland was a much busier port, so far as the Islands traffic was concerned, in the 'eighties and 'nineties. Foreign countries, foreign ships, have cut into the trade; some groups are altogether closed to our trade. Perhaps some day when our population is larger our people will turn to the sea life and to the possibilities of enterprise in the Pacific.

The modern progressivists in the Pacific are the' Japanese. They are certainly the nearest approach to the Elizabethan adventurers type we have in this ocean. They have the whole of the north Pacific, except Hawaii, the Philippines and Guam, in their hands, and there have been indications lately that their unofficial enterprise is being pushed south of the Lino. The Japanese are thorough, even to ruthlessness, in their colonisation methods. The endeavours of the Powers, including Britain, to thwart Japan's legitimate field in Manchuria and contiguous parts must have its reflex on the Pacific. Japan must have Y.n outlet somewhere for her quicklyincreasing population, some fifty times as large as New Zealand's population in a country no larger than our own. and we in the Pacific would prefer to see her interested in the Asiatic mainland than in of this ocean.' It is foolish policy to affront Japan causelessly as th© European statesmen are affronting her. It should never he forgotten that the Japanese Navy quietly and effectually co-operated with us in the Great War. We should remember those cruisers waitingr outside Wellington Heads to escort .bur troopships. Japan modelled her navy on the British, and in many ways patterned her" ways on Britain's. Now in navy and mercantile marine both there is unprecedented activity in her building yards. Japan can be a very good friend; she could be a terrible enemy. 0"r interests in British countries throughout the Pacific lie in maintaining the most friendly relations with the oceanic Elizabethans of this ,age.... •. — J.C.„