The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1925. AT THE “CROSS ROADS OF THE PACIFIC”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19301, 2 May 1925, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1925. AT THE “CROSS ROADS OF THE PACIFIC”

The success of the invading force at the United States fleet manoeuvres off Hawaii has caused a great commotion at Washington. Hard upon the news that the invading fleet was in a clear position to achieve its mission and capture Oahu, “which from the point of view of American defence must be amply defended against capture by a real enemy,’ comes a statement that the Federal Government has decided to ask Congress for increased appropriations wherewith to strengthen the defence of Hawaii. The immediate necessities, we are told, arc an increase in the permanent air force at the islands, coupled with increased artillery and infantry forces.

At first sight it looks very much as if Uncle Sam, to use a war-time colloquialism, “had. the wind up” over some unnamed dread at the back of his mind. The immensity and scope of the fleet manoeuvres, and the war game at Hawaii, would almost suggest to the average onlooker that the United States War Department was rehearsing for some near or far distant eventuality, and that the collapse of the defences at the “Cross Roads of the Pacific,” to employ the picturesque description given to the Hawaiian group by the Secretary for War, had revealed the necessity for immediate preparations with an eye to that eventuality. The worst of these war games is that some people are inclined to take them too seriously, and the effect in certain quarters becomes more or less provocative. The panicky state of the War Department might easily give rise to the suggestion that the United States Government is nervous about the situation in the Pacific.

A study of the American mentality suffices to dispel much of the. alarmist character of the messages from Washington. The American loves efficiency for efficiency’s sake. On the first intimation that something is wrong with cither his personal or national affairs, there arises a fierce desire to have it righted. Prove to him that a machinery model is out of date, and he will scrap it, regardless of the expense. This aspect of the American temperament is familiar to everyone, and it must be taken as a factor in the general excitement which has been created at Washington over the result of the naval war games off Hawaii.

From a world point of view, this solicitude on the part of the Americans to strengthen and make efficient the defences at the “Cross Roads,” is comforting to people who are inclined to be nervous about the situation in the Pacific. As we pointed, out the other day, a situation exists out of which very grave trouble might arise if diplomacy fails to do that which is clearly expected of it. In any event, if a position is considered necessary to be put into a state of defence, efficiency is clearly demanded, and in this connection it might be worth while quoting the view of the United States Army General Staff, which hold:

“The islands arc relatively more difficult to defend from the sea than a similar continental area or coast-line, but with our fleet in the Pacific there should bo no difficulty in defending them, because our fleet is stronger than that of any other Power in the Pacific, and because an enemy to attack the islands would have to come from a greater distance, and could therefore be met on more than even terms by our fleet based on Oahu.”

The moral to America of the capture of Oahu is that if by any chance of war an enemy fleet should be able to repeat what has just been accomplished, the American fleet would be cut off from an important base, and the tables turned. Hence, no doubt, the demand for increased defences, a demand based primarily, we think, on the American esteem for efficiency, but influenced no doubt in a secondary sense by the general uncertainty which apparently prevails regarding political developments in the Pacific. The “nigger in the wood pile” is the Russo-Japanese Treaty, concerning which the following observations by M. Tchitcherin in the Russian Review has some significance: “It was natural when our agreement with Japan was forming itself that certain apprehensions should have been expressed in capitalistic countries. Much is being said of a new international combination whose outline begins to appear upon the horizon, namely, an alliance among Soviet Russia, Germany, China, and Japan. So far as Germany is concerned it must be said that of late she has been showing a diametrically opposite tendency, that is to say, an inclination towards a rapprochement with the Entente. That is her business, but wc are afraid that such a disposition of herself will gain nothing for Germany. As to the abovementioned Far Eastern Alliance, until now there is no sufficient material to found such a rumour, but the rumour shows that the dominating imperialistic system already feels the menace coming from the Far East. Such fears disclose the fact that Russia is destined to play in Asia a role of immense historical importance.” We will leave it at that for the present.