AMERICA IN THE PACIFIC.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 20, 18 October 1907, Page 10

AMERICA IN THE PACIFIC.

THE PHILIPPINES Mr.'Hull, chairman of tho United States Military Affairs Committee, has expressed | himself emphatically in approval, of sending tho battleship fleet to'tho Pacific:' America, ) ho said, would never surrender tho Philippines. . - ■ ; J "lif Iowa';"-', said Mr. Hull, ','wo feol that - we have a right to send the fleet anywhere wo please, and if any nation has a chip on its ' ■ shouldor, tho,sooner we find it out tho better. Wo certainly have a right to send our tleot to any of our possessions, and no nation has a right to assumo that such action is antagonistic., - The Eastern people seem to be afraid that if the'ships'go' their coast will bo, bombarded. "It strikes me that the citizens of Boston and New York are under tho ■ impression that warships are built for them. Ihey are built for tho whole country. • "The movement of tho fleet will be a splendid demonstration.of the Navy's-power, riot • only to Japan, but to all the world. If the Japanese tako umbrage, it would 'show, to ' my mind, that they contemplate something they have no business-to contemplate, and the sooner wo find .it out tho better it will bo. I don't bojicvo Japan wants war with us at . this time. Wo liavo somo possessions that Japan would bo glad to fall hoir to, but Anglo-Saxon' right is might." . /Mr. Hull also spoko flatly against this "in-.' ' fernal- talk of self-government for tho Filipinos," who, ho said, would not be fit for a territorial government in fifty years. • ■ Ho ,'"said that he belived Secretary Taft himself ' -was weakening in tho attitude he has heretofore lield'in this regardi- 'Ho said tho Filipinos should bo given to understand that wo are going to keep them. • Incidentally ho criticised soveroly the discrimination against American capital involved in the policy, of tho United States concerning the islands. .No American capital can be induced to-go there, he. declared, unless free ' trado is given to the islands.