ANOTHER ASPECT.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13279, 19 January 1911, Page 4

ANOTHER ASPECT.

Then there is the broader question of defence—of national security. Speaking politically, the Pacific Ocean cannot be said to have belied the name which Magellan four centuries ago bestowed upon it, for the peacefulness of its waters has not yet, to any great extent at least, been disturbed by the fighting of nation against nation for supremacy, such as the western waters have witnessed a thousand times since history first to be recorded. But there are not wanting indications that at last all this is changing. The cloud no bigger than a man’s hand has already arisen, and ominously spreads itself over the eastern horizon. How often do we now bear the Pacific spoken of as “the coming centre storm” of the notions. There can be ignoring the present unrest so surely developing in regard to the balance of power in the Pacific, and more serious still to us are the portends that somewhere upon her mighty bosom, more probably than not south of the line, will take place the Titanic struggle which will decide once and for all the supremacy of the Southern Hemisphere. 'Jhe opening of the Panama Canal in a couple of years threatens to change even thus early the complexion of international relationships, and when completed it may possibly alter materially the status of more than one nation, without even a blow being struck. Between the European nations the problem of the Southern Pacific supremacy may be settled peacefully by diplomacy and compromise, but with the Asiatic nations now fast developing into world-wide Powers it may be different. One fact stands out plain and manifest; the attention of the diplomatists of the world has of recent years been directed towards the is-land-studied waters of the Pacific as it never was before; and if Great Britain, with the aid of the colonies, is unequal to the task of preserving, for the world’s white races, the lands now part of the British realm, some other European Powers or combination of Powers will undertake the duty. The peril of the future for New Zealand and Australia will not come from France, nor Germany, nor the United States, but from either Japan or China, or both in alliance. Time, not prophecy, will unfold whether the British colonies in the Southern Seas will hold their own against thieir Eastern neighbours. The tremendous fact must ever be remembered that, within the confines of South-eastern Asia, whose shores, like those of New Zealand, are washed by the billows of the grear Pacific, are to be found congregated an innumerable host of yellow and black and brown-skinned humanity, estimated by some authorities to exceed 700,000,000 of souls, or nearly half of the world’s inhabitants, nine-tenths of whom, during the brief space of their existence, in a life and death struggle for subsistence. What can five or six millions of Caucasians do against such a horde if if once roused to the fact that just across the seas—a few days’ steam—congenial homes may be found for myriads .of their people for centuries to come. In the meantime the Governments of these southern dependencies have- a. definite policy to pursue. Australia and New Zealand require population. This is the only way to maintain supremacy in the Southern Pacific. By every legitimate and honest means our population should be-increased, and the increase of ; population almost of necessity means increased trade and commerce. The question is all important.