The Fight for the Pacific. IN THE FAR EAST WITH A MODERN ULYSSES.

Evening Post, Volume LXIII, Issue 153, 28 June 1902, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Fight for the Pacific. IN THE FAR EAST WITH A MODERN ULYSSES.

In his "Mastery of the Pacific" just published, Mr. Colquhoun has embodied tho observations of a far-seeing traveller in regions which are destined to play an important part in the worlddrama of tho twentieth contury. He has not. been contonted Avith the tiito nnd ordinary experiences of the globe-trotter, but has visited and studied lands so remote, t»o little known to the oi dinary tourist, as British North Borneo, tho Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, Formosa, and tho Fiji Archipelago. China, Japan, and the French possessions in the Far East have not been overlooked, This volume is indeed the veritable Odyssey of a modern Ulysses among wanderers. The mastery of the Pacific, he holds, will bo decided by naval supremacy : "In this new arena there arc many features tho significance of which has hitherto been unappreciated 1 . Here Orient and Occident meet, both alike on alien ground. Little known, unvalued, negiocted, the events of the past /oav years have brought the Pacific Ocean into such prominence that whereas sixteen years ago a British statesman of the first rank could hardly bo induced to annex part of an important island adjacent to Australia . . . noAV the Great PoAvers Avatch jealously over the smallest and most remote coral-reef islands, and the whole of the vast ocean is practically partitioned out in spheres." What has happened in Africa and in Asia has happened here. The West has snatched all that it could, impelled by a strange, instinctive land-hunger. Tho most striking feature of the competition for poAver in tho .Pacific has been the appearance of the United States, coming over sea, and of Russia, coming oA'er land. THE UNITED STATES AND RUSSIA. Mr. Colquhoun seems to dread an agreement between Russia and the United States, as the result of which tho United States Avould recognise a Russian Monroe doctrine in tho Northern Pacific, warning all the other PoAvers off China, Avhile Russia in return would support the United States in other quarters. We arc bound to say that this idea seems to us fantastic in the extreme. At other times tho Avriter appears to think that in the not distant future Australia and the United States may join hands in their Pacific policy ; and to this end must conduce the fact that the neAV American possessions in the Philippines lie almost at the door to Australia, and liuk up the tAvo Anglo-Saxon States. For conflicts of the future in the Pacific the British Empire is well prepared, so far as bases and positions go. In one of his essays Captain Mohan has ha/itrdcd the conjecture that sonic special Providence leads our Empire, almost in spito of itself, to acquire tho points which will be tho "jumping-off places," to uso an Americanism, of the next generation. It is in tins Avay rather than by any conscious pm pose that avo have come into Mich strategic positions as Snndakan, in North Borneo. This place lies in tho highway of traffic, and may in time become as important as is Gibraltar in this old Europe of to-day. One of (ho most dangerous factors* in the Far Eastern problem, in the author's opinion, is the ambition of Germany. GERMANY AMBITIOUS. Sho openly cherishes the hope of succeeding Holland in possession of tho Dutch East Indies. Yet to Australia and the Anglo-Saxon communities of tho l'Jast an) such change would be in the high os. t degree unpleasant. The Dutch halve, on the Avholo, flovenied Avell. but

their colonies do not progress, and lead a sleepy lifo: "The Netherlands Indies have been almost asleep for ages, a ringfenco being put round them, and a Btrictly conservative policy adopted. . . . The position of Netherlands India between two go-ahead and flourishing democracies—Australia and the United States in the Philippines — will make it difficult to preserve the isolation and monopoly hitherto maintained by the Dutch." In the tule of empire and of human progress no one can stand still. Ho who does nob go forward is going back. "We may yet live to see a Greater Germany in the Pacific," is Mr. Colquhoun's conclusion. ' JAPAN'S POSITION. In the Northern Pacific Japan at present holds the dominating position, and she is bound, in the author's opinion, to play a tremendous part in the future of that sea. Her population is increasing at the roto of 500,000 a year, a fact to bo pondered by those who hold that the victory in this world struggle is for the Western races; but she is faced by the difficulty that her surplus population have nowhere to go. They are excluded from Australia, Canada, and the United States, where the motto is that no yellow race need apply. Like the Chinese, they are only too successful competitors of the white man, and they show to the full that capacity to "underlive" the Westerner which led the late Mr. Pearson to predict the eventual victory of the East in the struggle for life. Sooner or later Western morality must rise in revolt against the injustice which forces the West and Western id»as upon the East, while forcibly repelling from Western lands . even the civilised Oriental, such as the Japanese. Our alliance with Japan has given fresh importance to this long-standing question of morality. Of tho hitherto unnoticed work which •Tapnn is doing in settling Formosa, Mr. Colquhoun gives a very striking account. The strategic value of Formosa at the gates of the China Sea is immense, from tho storminess of the waters in which it lies, and therefore ifc is of no small importance to England that her ally nhould firmly establish herself there. At first the Ja'paneso met with small success, but in colonisation, as in other matters, they have not been above taking lessons from ourselves, and they are now making headway. A THIRTY YEARS' WAR. Some light is shed upon tho two wars which are still dragging out their leisurely courso in the East Indies. The Dutch struggle with tho Achinese has now lingered for thirty years, though it has never been prosecuted with the expenditure and effort which England is making in South Africa ; yot success is still remote : "It is impossible to venture outside (the Dutch settlement) without being reminded forcibly of the precariousness of the position. The windows of tho* railway carriages are of steel plates, sentinels keep watch everywhere on high towers, and the place is surrounded with trenches and -bristling guns." In the Philippines Mr. Colquhoun thinks that the progress mode by the United States has been really immense, yet ho recognises the difficulty of the problem which is before the Americans. Could the archipelago be made over to the control of one strong man, such as Judge Taft, all might go well. The Hanger lies in tho interference of sentimentalists in the United States, who have no knowledge of Oriental life and conditions. The Americans, too, are prone to go too fast, and have not yet realised that "west is west and east is east, and never tho twain shall meet." Cons>titufional government is hardly an institution to be lavished on Malays accustomed to centuries of despotism under Spanish rule. As illustrating the mental calibre of the Malay, a story is told of a servant of this race, who, when a wardrobe was being moved, asked whether it was to bo set up in its new position with its face to the wall. It had never struck him that one would not bo able to open tho doors. WEAPONS FOR THE MASTERY. If there is a land over which Mr. Colquhoun waxes enthusiastic it is the Pacific seaboard of Canada. Here, he urges, is a magnificent country, of tho groatest importance as a British base in the conflicts which may be impending, simply crying for settlers and oapitol, with a fine climate, boundless mineral wealth, a rich soil, and magnificent harbours. "What is wanted are men and money ; neither will be wasted." The final note is of exhortation to effort <iud preparation for the struggle of the future : "The two great nations who speak the English tongue are both at war, engaged on difficult and dangerous enterprise. And yet the writer urges them to further effort, sounds the tocsin in their cars and bids them prepare for a fresh struggle. There can be no rest, no pause in the march of a great empire ; it must advance or decay. The struggle for which the nations are preparing may, however, be a step in the scale of the world's progress, in that it need not involve the shedding of blood. Forethought, preparation, and sustained effort will be the only effective 1 "- weapons in the coming conflict, and these alone will decide the mastery of the Pacific. — Daily Mail.