WAR CLOUDS GATHERING.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 55, 6 March 1911, Page 6

WAR CLOUDS GATHERING.

UNITED STATES- AND JAPAN

HOSTILITIES WITHIN A YEAR

AN AMERICAN VISITOR'S

VIEWS.

"Wa~ will break oat between the United States, and Japan within the next twelve months," was, according to cable news. a. prediction made* nt Washington by Senator .Hobson. With this opinion concurs Mr C. E. RueseiJ, pii .American visitor, at present staying at Auckland. Mr Rnssell is one of the leaders of the Radical movement in the United States, and was- :i candidate- at the last election for the New York City mayoralty. Speaking to a. repc rter"this morning, Mr Russell said that Representative Hobson. an officer of the United' States Navy, who playe<l a prominent part in tho American-Spanish war, had five years ago foretold that before the end of 1911 there would be- an outbreak cf hostilities between America and Japan. The position between the* two countries Mr Russell points out, was nevev more critical than at th« present time "I have never known a time when the indications for war were more ominous than they are now/he said, md he proceeded to explain the reasons why. It is notso much Japan's desire for mow territory." he said, "although, that is something of a- factor. Tho real danger lies in Japan's rapid growth as a producing country. It is becoming a formidable competitor with America, in many lines. For instance, is has with .remarkable rapidity developed f\ great iron and rcteel business. I believe that Japan, if it got the chances, could lay down steel rails on the .Pacific Coast of America for far less than the American Steel Trust would do it. It is Japan's evident intention to dominate? the Pacific. America also has ideas in

that direction. Japan has already defied the American Tobacco Trust and driven it out of Japan and Korea and largely out of China.. Tho Tobacco. Trust had invested millions of dollars in building up that trade, but Japan has ousted it absolutely Then the little -yellow men have hit the Standard Oil' Trust very hard by developing tiieir • own oil industry. Even the American railway trust has suffered because ia big trade in flour was being developed with the ISasc, and the grain was carried by rail twothirds of the way across the continent and then transhipped. Now Japan lias the grain trade in its own hands. In every move of the game commercially in the East, Japan holds tlie winning hand, and the America-i trusts, which have very large interests at stake, are being outwitted." "We have afr all times on the Pacific Coast what might be called a powder-house condition of affairs,/' continued Mr Russell. "All along tlie coast thorp is a very bitter feeling against the Japanese, and the new treaty with Japan which has just been ratified1 by the Senate, will only lend to precipitate a climax, for on the Bacino Slope the situation is now tense. It only wants an anti-Japa-nese riot to lead up to a declaration of war. Still another reason why the trusts may force hostilities is that the great ethical movement is now. so strong in America that only such a calamitous thing as a war can stop its progress. Plunge the two countries into a great struggle, however, and the movement receives an immediate and terrible set-back. We are not. a

warlike nation, but the situation is critical, and I think the war-clouds are to burst. America, would win eventually, bun victory would fe about as disasterous as defeat, for it would,be a terribly^ costly war. It is my opinion, having recently visited Japan, and having just' left America, that Representative Hobson's warning may bo taken as distinctly ominous."'