IN THE TEAR 1898

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4543, 2 March 1942, Page 6

IN THE TEAR 1898

-USAGES OF PACIFIC HISTORY C PRELUDE TO ANGLO-AMERICAN I CO-OPERATION ♦

(By

H.W.L.S.)

• The battie for concessions in China • had been fought. Russia had obtained • Port Arthur, Germany Kiachow, and J Great Britain Wei-hai-wei. • Great Britain’s “ splendid isolation ” Z was menaced by a powerful European - coalition and embarrassed by con- - stant conflict with the Boer Republics. - The United States of America was » blockading the Philippines against ; Spain. The year—lB9B— was full of • threat and menace, and there was an under-current of apprehension in America as to Germany’s intentions. The United States was full of confidence as regarded Spain, against which country she required no aid,

which clearly saw an opportunity of colonial expansion by acquisition of the Philippines, where a successful native revolt against Spain had been in progress for some time. But the American occupation of this strategic group in the Far East implied not only a territorial extension in those waters, but also a new stake among the European Powers in the region in which she had first shown initiative through opening Japan to the western Powers forty-five years earlier. It was certainly Britain’s good fortune that this significant entry of America into the sphere of Far Eastern affairs coincided with a decided improvement in Anglo-American relations, which had been under a severe strain at that time by mutual recriminations over a boundary dispute between Guiana and Venezuela. THE FLEET BETWEEN The American blockading fleet was in position in the harbour of Manila when a German squadron under Admiral, Diedrichs, ignoring- the American blockade regulations, sailed to

: Manila and there took up its station, adopting a menacing attitude toward the American fleet, which was in considerably less force. No fighting occurred, out the position was extremely tense? At the critical moment a British squadron, which was lying off the coast, executed a manoeuvre by intervening and forming a screen between the fire of the two squadrons. The German squadron’s only resort was to open fire on both British and American squadrons. This they were not prepared to do, and the incident passed. The British support was much appreciated by the United States, which at one time believed war with Germany to be imminent. When it was decided to retain the Philippines under American sovereignty, the value of British friendship for the protection of the new colony was clearly perceived in Washington. For British policy in the Far East American friendship provided a no less welcome reinforcement, and co-operation between the two Powers was made easy by the convergence of their interests in China vis-a-vis the Dreibund nations (the name by, which Russia, Germany, and France were then known in theii’ Eastern operations), and their enclosure policy. A.merica’s interest in the East was essentially commercial, and demanded then, as it always has, “ the open door.” None of her activities could be called “ imperialist,” as she lacked any common frontier or coastal base in China, and the apparatus of government necessary for sustained pressure. Her common ground with Great Britain was definitely the restoration of the “ open door,” but having laid claim to a sphere herself, she was no longer in a good moral position for denouncing the enclosure system, and in 1899 America became the protagonist of what had been Britain’s policy. It is one of the quaint re-groupings of pieces in the chess-board of history that the threat to the Philippines should now be from a nearer neighbour, Germany’s partner, who, at that time, counted Britain and America as her special friends—holding Britain particularly in high esteem—while girding herself for her first trial ol strength with a European Power that is now oui- own Ally—Russia. ARGUMENTS OVER ISLANDS The prologue to the incident in the Philippines had been written some years previously when the three Pow-

ers concerned began writing polite notes to each other with respect to Samoa, now America’s sister stronghold in ’the Pacific, and backing them by sending warships into that region. The smaller Pacific islands have been the scene of international rivalries seemingly quite out of proportion to their size, and none more so than the Samoan Archipelago. As everyone familiar with Robert Louis Stevenson’s “ Footnote to History ” will recall, Great Britain, Germany, and the United States were for decades at loggerheads, being entangled in native factional struggles centring about a European-sponsored “ kingship.” In 1888, for instance, a party of Germans was attacked by the forces of Mataafa, a revolutionary chief who had led an insurrection against the German-appointed king, Tamasese, and in the scrimmage sixteen Germans were killed. There were far too many kings and potential kings, as well as triangular interests, in the Samoan pie to lead to anything but trouble. Apart from guarding the interests of their nationals and pro-

tecting the natives from exploitation by their nationals, the special objective was control of two of the most strategically important harbours of the South Seas.

It is interesting to recall that Admiral Sir Guy Gaunt, the Ballaratborn Royal Navy admiral, acting under Commander Sturdee on H.M.S. Porpoise, was in the hurly-burly of Samoan politics at their most turbulent period, and himself at one stage—as related in his “ Yield of the Years,” “ erected three flagpoles, on the island, from which the flags of Britain, Germany, and America were flown.” The German admiral was very reluctant to risk a shooting party, whereon Sir Guy Gaunt observed, drily: “ Well, Commander Sturdee, of the. Porpoise, hasn’t hesitated, and he has no more men than you have.”

A break in the tension between the nations and in the squabbling among dusky kings in Samoa was introduced by the hurricane which swept over the Samoan group on 16th March, 1889. It induced unity of purpose—to get sea room —among the warships, and produced at least one sea epic. This was when H.M.S. Calliope was the sole surviving vessel from among the number that lay at anchor in Apia Harbour when the huricane swept over it. Three American and three German warships were lost, with a death roll of 130. It was part of the freemasonry of the sea that prompted the crews of the entrapped ships to cheer the plucky Calliope men to their Herculean task of steaming the ship out of the death-trap. Nevertheless, the Treaty of Berlin of that year failed to establish a joint basis of control, and when Great Britain in 1909 withdrew from Samoa in consideration of imperial concessions elsewhere, Germany and the United States divided the group.

The Americans took over the four small eastern islands, which had only one-sixteenth of the land area and one-sixth of the native population, but included the splendid harbour of Pago Pago, now a naval station. Germany obtained control over the western portion, comprising the two large islands with some small ones, the lesssheltered harbour of Apia, around which practically all European enterprises were concentrated, the great majority of the Samoan people, and a heritage of turbulent Samoan politics. It was these western islands which, on 29th August, 1914, were occupied peaceably by an expeditionary force from New Zealand, and later became the “ Mandated Territory of Western Samoa,” held in trusteeship as a “ C ” class mandate by the Dominion. Throughout the triangular “ war of nerves,” whether at the Philippines, Samoa, or elsewhere, America showed an underlying sympathy for Britain which was lacking in her feeling for Germany, and incidents such as that described, in the words of China’s leader’s recent inspiring message to Australia, “ are an earnest of the bright future of the whole world of the Pacific, when the light of freedom prevails over darkness and aggression.”