WHO SHALL CONTROL THE PACIFIC?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13146, 7 April 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHO SHALL CONTROL THE PACIFIC?

BY WIU.LAjr Ml'l'l'llKl.t. 111'N'KKH.

(Representative at Washington of the Chain'; ' her of Commerce of Han Francisco).

Great Britain- excepted, the world saw not, or, seeing, refused to notice the planning energy, -the power, of purpose, the oneness, the cohesive strength, and ambition of the Japanese. -

Months before . the war began Japan mapped for military; use the Manchuria, that -.Russia was trying to fie to itself. 'That is the .Japanese way. While Japanese soldiers smashed Port Arthur Japanese traders scoured 'other lands. \\ iti'e other peoples went wild\ over the w;H' silent and sober Japan )ixeU\for its own use the trade values of other'peoples. While other peoples blithely cha.ttWt '>; Chinese trade Japan chatted with Chimin and Western traders entered the open door, only to find Japan already "doing business." The solidarity of .Japan and the mental duality of the Japanese breed audacity. While other peoples prepared to invade the Far East the Japanese invaded the Far West. Japanese agents passed along the Pacific Coast of the Americas, charted the currents of trade, created new and, for Japan, more favourable currents, and formed the industrial and ; commercial connections that rival nations like not, yet cannot condemn. The East has proved the West no longer has a. patent on progress.

• Favouring proximity facilitates Japanese trade in China and Cprea. This proximity is used to its full value. There is another favouring proximity equally appreciated by Japan, but which her vis-a-vis across the ocean has hardly seen. Americans have so harped on the fact that their Pacific Coast- faces the Far East that they have almost forgotten the Far East faces their Pacific Coast. The Japanese know; it, and know also that the commerce of the Pacific Coast of America concerns them even as the commerce of the Far East concerns Americans. U This may explain why Japan increased its merchant marine from 150,000 tons in 1890 to 1,000,000 tons in 1905, and why it is working for a still larger tonnage.

The Toyo Kisen Kaisha- Steamship Company is building two steamers of 12,500 tons each for the Japan-San Francisco line. Japanese plans also include steamer connections with Central Europe and the opening of a line between Hongkong and Chili, touching at Noji, Kobe, and Yokohama. The latter steamers will carry j Chinese and Japanese coolies and labour-'! ers to the South American States, thus ! aiding the development of those States, i and return with cargoes of nitrate of soda and other South American products to China and Japan. Meanwhile 12,000,000 dollars is being spent- on Chilian, port improvements. • It is fab- to infer that the South Americans and the Japanese will finally arrange trade treaties in their 'mxitual interest. The other trading nations may. console themselves with the thought that the worst is still to come. The foreign trade of Japan increased from 80.000,000 dollars in 1893 to 347,000,000 dollars in 1904, and the ton- 1 age employed in carrying it increased in the same period from nine to 27 millions. The trade quadrupled and the tonnage I trebled; , : ' , '' - -;' : "- ; ."";' j- _ As for •: the United States, -at a, New York banquet in honour of "the; Chinese ! Embassy. 1868,; Honourable wards Pier--pont said: — : : . ~ '" There are millions of willing . bands ready to enrich and beautify our lands. If there is present a merchant who expects to live 30 years, and wishes his son succeeding him to amass a fortune, in comparison with which that of the Medici were poverty, let him build ships to run between China and our Pacific-Coast.". The Far Eastern trade was then in its infancy. \'. The agricultural. industrial, commercial,' and -mineral resources of the Pacific Coast were then ; largely ■'• veiled. Yet the dominating thought in "American commercial circles; was' the trade conquest of Asia by way; of the Pacific Coast. The Japanese conquest of the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Coast of the Americas was not even the fabric of a- dream. In the light of Mr. ; Pierpont's prophetic statement,: why has the United States failed of proper success in Far Eastern trading? For several reasons; internal development, railway building, the home market (the best of all markets), and then the European market, absorbing private and public attention, so that the United States largely ignored the trading value of the Pacific Coast. This country is still embarrassed by its riches. Since 1866 United States territory has grown from 3,025.600 square miles to 3,770.954 square miles. .The increase mainly represents Pacific lands and islands, and yet. ignoring the proximity of its Pacific Coast to; the Far East, ignoring the kaleidoscopic changes in Far Eastern conditions, and ignoring the Japanese advance and the necessities of the Philippines, the United States Government, admirably -m• terprising on irrigation lines, has ' been, blind to the value of the Pacific Coast as an American base for the Far Eastern trade. To be sure, the Pacific Coast- bonefits by the .Government, transport connections with the Philippines. But that is a. mere patronage incident. The territorial expanse of the country, the industrial and commercial development of the Pacific Coast States, the value of that developJ ment as a factor in solving the trade proj Mollis 1 of the Far East, (he nearness of I (lie Pacific Coast to the Far Last—all j these facts have been evaded in an effort | to control from the Atlantic Coast the Far i Eastern trade. .

; Despite neglect, the Pacific.Coast- of the United States steadily gains commercial importance, Tile figures of" its foreign trade arc eloquent. Tn the nine months of this year, ending with September, the exports of I lie Pacific Coast ports were 80.000.000 dollars, or double those of the first .nine months in i 1901. The export gain .of the Atlantic ports in the same

period was 50.00,000 dollars, despite the

"fact"'that the. total was over 673,000,000 dollars. In passing, it should be said that several lines of steamers connecting coast ports with the Far East are doing a large business. . . . The distance from San Francisco. to Shanghai is 5506 miles, as against 10,500 miles from London to Shanghai. San Francisco is 7129 miles nearer to Yokohama than is London, anfl even by an overland and oversea route to the Philippines San Francisco has an advantage of 3000 miles over New York. . The distance , from New York to the Philippines by water is nearly double that from Sim Francisco to the Philippines. ! The American Government has no great military warehouse, west of Jeffersonv : i Indiana, • 2200 miles oast of the Pacific I Coast. Hence if buys manv supplies for I the Pacific Coast and for the Philippines.' j deliverable at. Jeffersonvllle. The Govern- ! moMt, has .had a big floating dock for the j Philippines built on the Atlantic Coast.' I which, if ever delivered; at Cavite. will Cost much more than if built, at San Fratt. | cs.cq. The delivery problem remains tobe solved. The Government discourages the industrial fecundity of the Pacific Coast, 'ami so cramps relations with the Far East; but the activity of the Japanese bids fair to push it into the position of a trade promoter. •■;; 'The American trading value of the Panama Canal is variously estimated. 'That this value may prove more apparent than real would ; seem to be partially indicated by (he limited ' use in th* Far Eastern trade! of- Pacific ' Coast : proximity, to the Far Fast. ■ Unless the American merchant

marine ■ bo'-, born : again in the meantime, j the Panama Cunal may serve Japan better J than the United States. : , ' ■'■■' \ ;'; ; j; The Pacific-Coast of the Americas is the I scene of multiplying activities,'./which for trading purposes'aro of value to the Japanese. One pointed: economic illustration is the fact, that, within '■• five years,: fuel., oil and : the long-distance transmission of , electric energy have ..;furnished California with/cheap motive-power, and placed that State on a ; manufacturing plane.? This is . merely one.; feature of the- Pacific - Coast development that is creating .new.condi- j tions at.various intervals from Alaska on j the north to southern South America. A. new railway from Salt Lake ' to San j Francisco,: the last link in a new trans- J continental line, is being built with fever- ! ish haste, and other railway construction is also in progress. The Mexican Government and British j capitalists are reconstructing the railway across the Isthmus of Tehtiantepec from I Salina Cruz, on the Pacific, to Coatza- j coalcos; 3on the Atlantic. The railway! company has an agreement with the Ha- | waiian : Steamship Company, whereby 11 steamers,, averaging 10,000 tons, will serve '{Im Atlantic and Pacific ends of the railway, these vessels plying between the Hawaiian Island and California ports, and' between*, Mexican >■ ports and New York. The railway is 1200 miles north of Panama, and 800 miles south of New Orleans, and, in a way. will anticipate the traffic that was allotted to the Panama Canal: It is too .soon to predict the effect of this new and close connection between the AtI lantic and Pacific Coasts. It will certainly ! create a new and important trans-Pacific trade current. j The national policy of the Japanese has stimulated shipbuilding and oversea trading. Possibly some other countries .as favourably placed on the rim of.: the Pacific will' use their natural advantages in the ' interest of the Pacific Ocean'"'trade. They may bo forced to this course by outside pressure. Germany has shown marked enterprise in Central and South America and in Pacific Ocean transportation. Recently, Germans have started a great Central American bank, With a central office in Berlin, the incident closely following the opening of a Japanese bank in San Francisco. Competitive facilities for trade and transportation, mainly bearing on the Far-Eastern trade, are rapidly. increasing in the Americas. One of the most suggestive enterprises is the railway | being built across the narrow part of j Canada, with a. view to securing the shortest water and • rail route for Great Britain from England to Asia. There are signs that even in these days of strenuous commercialism the leading nations realise that that which makes for the commercial poise of the world is best for the world. There is a growing interdependence of political and commercial interests born of international borrowing. Every day emphasise the fact that the world's financial chain, like other chains, is no stronger than its weakest link. The world has not reached that state of progress when he who fixes its loans may care ■' not .who writes v its songs or makes it's laws, but it is none the less true that the great financiers of the world have enough interest in the Far East to work • for its harmonious development. These. men would: rather combine for - profit than fight at a loss. After the capitalistic combinations of the last few years, who dares limit the combination possibilities of the Far; Eastern trade? Then, there is the thought that even if Japan shows the science in trade that has marked its military advance, its financial limitations may arrest its present pronounced progress. In any event, the cur- ■ tain is rising on the most interesting cultural and "■' commercial drama. ;of modern times. '• ■ '[ (Copyright by Potentia in Great Britain and ' ' " the United States, 1905.) . " :• ;