Hawke's Bay Herald. MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 1902. THE WEST INDIES AND AMERICAN POLICY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12063, 27 January 1902, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 1902. THE WEST INDIES AND AMERICAN POLICY.

The purchase of the Danish possessions in the West Indies by the United Hates is interesting at the present moment, although it may not have much practical importance. Eor months past negotiations have been going on between the two Governments. It was generally supposed by the Americans that Germany was anxious to secure the islands. The Kaiser has no coaling station in that part of the world, and it is natural that with his aim to construct a great navy he should be anxious to make good this deficiency. It shows clearly how recently the Germans have entered upon a world policy of the larger kind which appeals to modern statesmen that while Prance, Holland, Denmark, and until recently Spain held some of the islands of the Carribean Sea, Germany has not a single point of vantage in the Now World If the Kaiser wishes at any time to make his attempt for a South American dominion it would obviously have been much to his advantage to have a foothold, however small, in that quarter of the globe. It is not too much to say that many Americans entertainedan uneasyfeeling thatthe desire for the possession of these islands might lead to war between the two nations. Their purchase will remove one possible bone of contention. With Spain and Denmark both gone, the only old world Powers interested in the West Indies are Great Britain, Prance, and Holland The Danish Islands were of very small size, but had an importance considerably greater than their area would entitle them to. They consisted of the three islands St. Thomas, St. Cro’x, and St. John. The firstnamed, with an area of 35 square miles, supports a population of 14 000, of which only one-tenth are white. The rugged nature of the central part of the island renders : much of it unfit for cultivation; and : fertile as all the West Indies are, it cannot support its population. It i owes its flourishing condition to the 1

fact that several large lines of steamers call at its port, and most travellers in that part of the world, whatever may be their destination, made a longer or shorter stay there, Bt. Croix is the largest and southermost of the Virgin Islands. The history of this island well illustrates the curious changes which this part of the world has undergone from a political point of view. Discovered by Columbus on his second voyage, it has alternately been in the hands of the Dutch, British, Spanish, and Preach, by the last of whom it was ceded to Denmark in 1733 The English took it in 1807, but it was restored to the Danes by the Treaty of Paris. The chief town is the seat of Government of the Danish West Indies. The remaining island of St John is of very diminutive proportions, but contains several good anchorages. Prom this brief sketch it will bo seen that the possession of these \ seemingly unimportant portions of : the earth’s surface is not without 1 value for naval purposes. ] The main interest of the negotiations for the purchase of these

islands, which have been dragging on for over thirty years, lies in the ind : cation thus afforded of the ai s of American policy. Mr John Hay, the American Secretary for Foreign Affairs, a man well known as an admirable speaker and a literary man of considerable merit, recently addressed the '■ ew York Chamber of Commerce on the subject of A merican diplomacy A good deal of the speech was devoted to allaying the fear which has arisen occasionally that the United States had designs on the South American Republics. The speaker assured his audience that his Government no more wanted their territory than they wanted the mountains of the moon. And although they were grieved when differences arose between thes*States they would never think of trying to compose these differences unless by the request of both parties concerned. We confess that after the example of the Cuban war these assurances strike us as hardly meant to be taken too literally.

There was a part of his speech, however, that stands out with exceptional force, and it is likely, from its epigrammatic point, to be remembered for a long time. Speaking of the foreign policy of the great nation which ho helps to govern he said, “The briefest expression of our rule of conduct is perhaps the Monroe doctrine and the Golden Rule. With this simple chart wo can hardly go far wrong. 1 ' The order in which the Monroe doctrine stands with regard to the Golden Hule is worth noticing. The whole sentiment is delightfully American, and recalls Artemus Ward’s explanation that the planets followed their orbits in obedience to the law of gravitation and the constitution of the United States. But however one may criticise the phrase, it has the great merit of arresting the attention, and it deserves to ho carefully weighed by statesmen of the older world.

Nearly eighty years have passed, since the brilliant English statesman George Canning, suggested, and John Quincy Adams drafted, the policy which Mr Monroe announced to the world in the Presidential message of 1823 From that day to the moment of Mr Cleveland’s Venezuelan message and right on to the Resent moment ,the policy thus inaugurated, steadily increased in importance in the minds of the American public It has not attained this place as a result of thorough discussion. When first propounded it had for its object the protection of the recently formed f-outh American Hepublica from tho vengeance of Spain, Then the issue was clearly cut between absolutism and popular freedom Since then the position has entirely changed Here is a colossal continent with a destiny which should rival Kussia s, magnificently watered, inhabitable by white races, all of it sparsely populated, and much of it barely explored, teeming with mineral and agricultural wealth, and yet lying

agricultural wealtu, and yet lying half derelict, the prey of revolutionary turbulence, and all for lack of a strong Government that would ensure to capital the fruits of its enterprise. Yet, ludicrous as it may seem, it is apparently the fact that Americans have not the least doubt but that on preserving South America to the Spanish half-breed version of government merely because it masquer des under the insignia of republicanism they are rendering civilisation an immense service. In what way a British or Italian Argentine, or a Germanised Brazil could impair the moral interests of the United States has not been clearly explained. In the meantime the Monroe doctrine perpetuates in South America the predominance of a religion which the majority of Americans dislike, of a race which they despise, and of a system of government which in all but name is a flat negative of everything America stands for. It it surely high time that the A mericans considered more thoroughly the meaning and working of this doctrine of which we have heard so much of recent years