The Pacific.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18263, 23 December 1924, Page 10

The Pacific.

The suddon naval excitement in America seems to indicate nothing so much as the occasional inconvenience of free speech and of a very free Press. Responsible opinion on both sides of the Pacific is apparently quite calm, and more than ever before anxious for and hopeful of an enduring peace. Japan has accepted the Alien Exclusion Law. Washington has gone to unprecedented lengths to assure Tokyo of its friendliness and gratitude. Yet tho condition and disposition of the Navy has suddenly become "a raging "topic of dispute." and no on,o seems to know why. Tho Press of Japan, or a portion of it, certainly asked, when tho Pacific cruise was announced, if such an expedition was a gesture of friendliness. A small number of American naval officers have kept on asking for months if the nation realises how feeble the Fleet is. A member of the House of Representatives has asked the President to call a conference of the whito nations of the Pacific to consider Japan's "open "preparations for war"; and on tho strength of a few alarms like that Congress has been in "continuous uproar "for /three days," and the Navy become tho anxiety or boast of every newspaper reader. We know, of courso, as everybody knows, that what may appear to be an official calm In Washington or Tokyo may be a very active period of watching and planning

i 3 listened to and applauded and attacked only br.-auso the "imaginary ' i enemv"is sever absent from millions of minds. He speaks for tiiose who have it always in their heart; th;it war is coming, that it may come quite soon, and that it is moral cowardice not to face the fact and prepare for it. One of the alarmist admirals, for example, of whom mention has already been made, was the chief speaker at a recent Flag Service in a Fifth Avenue Church, the congregation being thousands or present and past soldiers, sailors, nJid marines, and this was the nature of his speech: That America is rich, and the nations surrounding it "intensely "virile, ambitious, intelligent and "poor." That the Germans, Russians, and Japanese, looking at America, reflect that its -wealth and luxury were obtained largely by war. and could be taken from then: by a people more skilled in war. That the Japanese especially think that they have been harshly and offensively treated, and have set themselves to become "stronger militarily, while America b "becoming e/Feminised." "We can see, for instance. • that m Japan the people arc sternly repressing nil tendency to luxury, and that a nation-wide movement, almost feverish in its intensity, is acting to aggrandise its air force, even working women and little boys and girls contributing their mites, while we, on the contrary, are becoming more and more addicted to Inxury and pleasure, while gaudy fashion shops almost monopolise our grandest avenue. As a result, our probable enemies are becoming stronger to attack and we weaker to resist. Of course, tho longer that trend continues the weaker we shall become in comparison with them. But even at the present moment New York is not only the most vulnerable city in the world, but the most vulnerable city that has ever existed. The speaker then drew a picture of the city under a sudden air raid, the people held captive by the demolition of their ouly means of escape, the bridges, and bombs raining down continuously. There wa3 one hope only: As the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night led the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, so can religion and patriotism lead us out of the mire of luxury and ease and pleasure toward that higher destiny for which our fathers fought, that higher destiny for which wc aJso shall have to fight, or perish from the earth. Now it is useless saying that all such talk is nonsense. Most of it is worse than nonsense, but when it is uttered by people who ought to know, who are at least in earnest, and whose patriotism is shot through with religion, the result may be anything. It has been a constantly repeated warning in tho many articles which Professor Macmillan Brown has contributed to our columns that war will come, if it does come, not because the Legislatures are stupid or the Governments have lost their heads, but through the excitement of the uneducated masses, who can yet read. Representative Britten and Rear-Admiral Fiske speak as they do because they have no faith in peace, or in the professions of peaceful intentions. But the outcome of that doctrine, or lack of doctrine, is another feverish race in armaments, and sooner cr later the end of modern civilisation. It is surely wisdom to give peace a chance!—to do everything possible to delay the appeal to force, even -though sooner or later the appeal to reason may fail.