The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1907. AMERICA AND JAPAN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13461, 6 December 1907, Page 4

The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1907. AMERICA AND JAPAN.

Viscount Aoki. the Japanese Ambassador at. Washington, who ha.s lw>eri ■■■recalled to Tokio in order to discuss with' his, own Government, the question of the rtiiiigration of Japanese to Ahwrica, is- diplomatically' doing his best- to minimise the importance of his ieoall. 'Hie immigration problem, he -says, is;not, serious, and will bo titled satisfactorily. HiV* own return to Japan, he. says, is no indication ,of , unfriendliness towards America. All this.sounds just a little) like the old error of protesting Um much, and if it, has any effect upon public opinion, will deepen the suspicion tint relations between Japan and Amenca are not. running i[Uito ho lanoothly as the returning Ambassador would have us believe. That suspicion will bo accentuated by President. Roosevelt 'fi message to Congress, an unusually lengthy deliverance which was summarised in yesterday's cables. The ab&eiifce from the message of -any reference to the immj--gration question is peiliaps more feigniiicant, if les-s dangerous, than" anything the President, could have permitted himself to say on the subject, though lu\ was at. come pains to lefer with special warmth to Amenta's repiesentation at the forthconilhg exhibition at. Tokio. But againut this lather harmlefs display of amity,-one cannot help contrasting thill, portion 'of his Message in which Mr Roosevelt urged substantial additions to Iho navy, and defensive preparations in the Pacific. "-He . recommended a larger aimy. and that four of" the largest type of battleships should be built this year, also defensive! \works and coaling stations in -the Pacific, which was America's coastline equally with the Atlantic. He hoped' that until the Panama canal was opened t"he battle fleet would shift from one ocean to the other .every year or two. He dwelt on the educational value of Admiral Evans's ciuise " Of course nobody ,will be misled by the President's words into <suppo*iing that naval education is the sole, or the principal, motive behind this movement to the Pacific. In sending its flefet of battlushipis and torpedo boats round the Hoin horn the New Tork Francisco .side of the continent, 'the United States Government has given evidence <6i its decision that it cannot wait for the completion of the Panama canal to demonstrate its pea-power in tha oefcan which separates its own western sharea from its Philippine poraessiohs and! the island empire of the Mikado. Hitherto the whole of iti naval force has been concentrated! in the Atlantic, keeping watch upon; European Powers which might tempted to challenge the Monroe doctrine. The rapid growth of the American navy < in recent years has been due to a, national belief that the Monroe policy lesrs -upon, naval strength, and the Atlantic seemed to be the arena in which, if anywhere, the United States would' in \h& last, resort have''t<» demonstrate their power at sea,. There' they had collected a fleet of sijctgeh ' battleships, with cruisers and torpedo craft, making a really formidable fleet. Hut now' they have, itii Hie language of Piesident Roosevelt's Message, awakened to the reality filial, the Pacific is as,much the coastline 'of America! tie the' Atlantic is. The Atlantic is to be denuded now, and at intervals in the future, of American *wa,i 'ships; the United' States fleet h to bo maitsed in tho Pacific and ils fAee is to be, ■set towards A<du; rati lie r, limn towards Europe., It, maybe quite 1 tru.e, as both Japanese and American' official maintain, that nothing like a threat 'to Japan is intended I .' but it, is quite certain that in tho opinion of -the Wiishittg'tqn authorities, the storm centre lias shifted, from the Atlantic to the 'Pacific, That is the unmistakenble meaning of tho redistribution of the Aniericair fleet, cji'sib as the {President miry under talk of the educational value of cruise fiom coast, to coast, while tho Japanese Ambassador, rpcallecl for a specific - purpose, uses every opportunity for> ininimising the ..seriousnestf •of his orders. It I may even be a fiolht fact that neither Government aUbicipaittfc; immediate, trouble— Japan especially can hardly be in a position to commence another war vo soon after the exhausting sknggle with Ruusja—and possibly the tension over the admission of Japanese into America may ', never develop into war. But somehow or other the problem of the future relations between the peoples of Asia and the races of European htoxik must beset tied upon n lasting basis, and the Pacific is the region in which the problem ' will have to be worked out. The firati important move in the solution of ■ thd problem has been the disposition of the Amei ican fleet which ' enables;, the Unitied States to speak with attlluorily ,hi tile Pacific without inviting war by beiti| unprepared to defend the Philippines or the western coast of the ' eoittment. Tim'tf aloue will show whether the great). rataial question will be disposal of sd satisfactorily and so easily as Viscount. Aeki anticipaies, or whether Ihe fighting capacity of the American fleet in to be tested by something more serious than art educational cruise. ' t