The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-27 00:00:00

To Reach the Par East Proceed West.

The Colorado, which steamed from San Francisco
on New Year's Pay, reached Japan on the 22d, and
Hong Kong on the 30th January. We endeavoured
in a leading article in our issue of the 2nd inst. to
draw more general attention to what we believe to
be the most useful as well as the greatest work in
progress in the world. The new highway, which
hitherto has attracted so little attention here—
being regarded, from its very magnitude, as
a thing to come into operation in the far
future—is at last exciting notice. It is now
discovered that a telegram may be sent to
Japan from Europe in three weeks. A message is
received in San Francisco from London in a day,
and if the day be that of the departure of one of
the Pacific mail ships on the China Line, it is
nearly sure to be delivered in Japan in the time
specitied. This is the first sign of the coming
change, and people are beginning to talk of the
close connection which the march of civilisation
westwards has at length established between the
oldest and the newest of great nations. It may be
questioned, says the Times, if the commercial public
have as yet fully realised the facility give❑ to busi-
ness by these telegraphic communications. The
commercial public have, indeed, realised little or
nothing of the importance of the work going on in

the United States. The attention of merchants
connected with Japan will awake to the facility
offered them of speedy communication with a coun-
try which has hitherto been the most difficult to
reach. But this is a very small part of the boon
about to be conferred on mankind So little has
the work been noticed that even the announcement

that messages can now be forwarded so quickly
to Japan takes people by surprise, and
is regarded as something new and startling.
Within the next two or three years they will be
surprised that they are now surprised at the small
instalment of the great accommodation which the

future in this route has in store for them. We be-
lieve at this moment, taking the line as it stands,

that the best way to Japan and the north of China
is via New York. Although the journey across the
Rocky Mountains might be too fatiguing an under-

taking for any but young men in good health, yet
the traveller can go the whole way in comfortable
steamers, crossing the Isthmus of Panama by rail.
Yokohama and Shanghai can be reached by ship-
ping in any of the steam lines to New York, with

perhaps greater economy and more comfort than by
any other route. From New York a passage is
taken to Chagres, and the traveller crosses the
Isthmus in time, as it is said, to light his cigar by
the Atlantic and throw the end into the Pacific.
The Pacific Mail steamships carry the passenger to
SAn Francisco, and thence to Japan. A map gives
a false impression of distances, which can only be
removed by consulting a globe. The value of the
position of New York as a station on the track to

China comes as a new idea, reversing all our pre-

vious notions. We have been so accustomed to
proceed East that it gives a violent wrench to our
thoughts when we are told that the proper way to
reach the far East is by going West. The Isthmus
of Panama is, month by month, rising in im-
portance to the English. This is the point now
aimed at by the traveller to Australia
and New Zealand. New York is not yet alive to
the importance of the traffic springing up between
Great Britain and the Isthmus. When the pro-
prietors of the lines between that city and Chagres
realise the value of the carriage, they will move to
obtain a share of the profits, in which they will be
aided by the powerful interests of the steam com-
panies between Europe and New York. A traveller
seeking to reach San Francisco has little idea how
information is to be obtained, and those proceeding
to New Zealand and Australia have a settled con-
viction that the only route is by the West India
steamers. These misconceptions will, however,
quickly adjust themselves, for the public are too

keenly alive to their own interests in making
arrangements for long voyages to remain for any
lengthened period groping in the dark. They have,
too, another advantage in the profits of the com-
panies concerned to guide them aright. When it
is recognised that to reach China we must proceed
west and not east, the best of the routes open will
soon be discovered, and in the meantime the grand
work which is for ever to solve the problem is
proceeding towards completion. The Union Pacific
Railway is pushing on to Denver at the rate of
one mile each day ; and but a short time will
elapse before the Salt Lake City is connected by
rail with San Francisco. Then, indeed, to reach
the far East the traveller must proceed West, and
we believe that even the facilities now in existence
render this route the correct one for those whose
destination is China.—Anglo-American Times.