JAPANESE IN HAWAII.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1074, 13 March 1911, Page 4

JAPANESE IN HAWAII.

IMPORTANT STRATEGIC POSITION. (By Tclcerapn.—Special Corrcsnondont.l Auckland, March 11. A resident of Honolulu, who is at present in Auckland, agrees with pre-viously-published statements that the increasing Japanese population in Hawaii is causing tho United States authorities a great deal of concern. _ The present Japanese population is estimated at 80,000, many of the. males being ex-soldio.rs who linvo seen service with the Mikado's forces. The' majority of the Japaneso are labourers on tho sugar plantations, though quite a number are engaged in business, and keenly compete with tho white population. What the visitor regards as a serious aspect of the matter is that the Japanese now in Hawaii are entitled to the franchise. He says Hawaii is looked upon as the key of tho northern Pacific, and in the event of the United States being embroiled in a struggle with an Eastern nation, tho group would be a strategic position of tho utmost importance. The United States is now fortifying Hawaii and intends to make Pearl Harbour a naval base, where dry docks will be completed capable of taking tho largest American battleships. In conclusion the visitor remarked that there was a .growing feeling in American naval and military circles that sooner or later the interests of Japan and the United States wero • bound to clash, and tho result would be a bitter struggle for the BuiUMt o£ tho northern Pacific,