Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-12-16

var. and to prevent any other nation having
equal facilities in the came direction. Great
Britain holds and forti6es all the strate9esic
points that controls the route to India. n
Gibraltar, 1t Malta, 1t CyprusA her 1ortifica-
tions give her the mastery Of the Meq1eerran-
can. She holds controlling iuterese IN the
Suex canal and ~ her forti6cations at Alden
and on the Island Of Perrin she excludes all
other powers from the waters Of the Red
Sea and readers i mare claasum.
Il would, in the Judgment Of the Presi-
dent, be no more unreasonable for the United
States to demrnd a share in these fortifiea-
tons or to demand their entire GENERALIZATION
than for England to make the same demand
in perpetuity from the United States with re-
spect to the transit across the American con-
tinent. The possessions which Great Britain
thus carefully guards in the East are not
of more Importance to her than is the Pacific
slope, with its present development and as
sured growth. to the government of the u
81 The States and territories appurtnate TO
the Pacific Ocean and dependent upon it for
commercial outlet, and hence directly inter-
ested in the canal comprise an area Of nearly
500, 900 square miles larger in extent than
the German Empire and the four Latin coun-
tries of Europe combined.
This vast region is but fairly beginning its
miles of railway are already constructed
within its limits and it is a moderate calcula-
ton today, that within the current decade
the number of miles will be doubled In the
near future the money value of its surplus,
for exports, will be as large as that of British
India. Nor must it be forgotten that India
is but = distant colony of Great Britain,
while the region on the Pacific is
an integral portion of our national union
and of the very form and body of our state
The inhabitants of India are alien from Eng
land in race, language and religion. The
citizens Of California. Oregon and Nevada,
with the adjacent territories are of our own
blood and kindred, bone of our bone and flesh
Of our flesh.
Great Britain appreciates the advantage
and perhaps the necessity of maintaining at
the cost of large military and naval establish
ments the interior and nearest route to India,
while any other nation. with hostile intent,
10 compelled to take the longer route and
travel many thousand additional miles through
dangerous seas. 1t is hardly conceivable
that the same great power, which considers
herself justified in taking these precautions
| for the safety of a remote colony on another
continent, should object to the United States
adopting similar, but far less demonstra-
tive measures for the protection of the dis
| tant shares Of her own domain, for the draw
ing together of the extremes of the Union
in still closer bonds of interest and svmpa-
thy and for holding in the quiet determina-
ton of honorable self defence in the absolute
control of the great water way which shall
unite the two oceans, and which the United
States will always insist upon treating as
part Of her coast line If a hostile move
ment should at any time be made against the
Pacific coast, threatening danger to its peo-
pie and destruction to its property the gov
eminent of the United States would feel that
| it had been unfaithful to its duty and neglect
full towards its own citizens, if it permitted
itself to be bound BY treaty which gave the
| same right through the canal to war ship,
bent on an errand of destruction that is re
| served to its own navy sailing for the defence
| of our own coast and the protection of the
lives of our people, and As England insist. by
the might of her power that her enemies in
war shall strike her Indian possessions only
by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, SO the
government of the United States will equally
| insist that the interior, more speedy and
safer route of the canal, shall be reserved for
ourselves, while our enemies, ii we shall
ever be so unfortunate as to have any. shall
be remanded to the voyage around Cape
Horn,
A consideration OF the controlling inHu-
ence in this question is the well settled
conviction on the the part of this
government, that only be the United States
exercising supervision can the Isthmus canal
be definitely, at all times, secured against
the interference and distractions incident to
war. mere agreement of neutrality on
paper between the great powers of Europe
might not prove effectual to preserve the canal
in time of hostilities. The first sounds of a
cannsn in general European war would in
all probability, annul the treaty of neutrality,
and the stragetic possession of the canal,
commanding both oceans, might be held By
the first naval power that could seize it, If
this should be done, the United States would
suffer such grave Inconvenience and loss in
her domestic commerce as would enforce the
duty of defensive and protective war on
her part, for the mere purpose of gaining
that control which, In advance, she insists
is due to her position, demanded by her nee
essities.
| am not arguing or assuming that gen
eral war or any war at all, is imminent in Eu-
rope, but it must not be forgotten that within
the past % years, all the great powers of Eu-
rope have been engeged in war, and most of
them more than once. In only . single in
stance in the past one hundred years, has the
U. S. exchanged hostile shot with any Eu-
ropean power 1t is the highest degree i'm
probable that for hundred years to come
even that experience will be repeated. 1t
consequently cecomes evident that the one
conclusive mode of preserving every Isthma.
canal from the possible distinction and de-
struction of war, to place it under the con-
troll Of that government least likely to be en-
gagged in a war, and able in any and in every
event to enforce the guardianship which she
will assume.
For selfprotection to her own interests.
therefore, the u, 5. in the first instance as
serts her right to control the Isthmus transit,
and secondly, she offers by such control
that absolute naturalization of the canal as
respects European powers, which can in no
| other way be certainly advanced, and lastly
| assured, another consideration forcibly sug-
gests the necessity of modifying the conven-
ton under discussion at the time it was
agreed to BY Great Britain and the United
States, were the only nations prominent in
the commerce of Central and South America
Since that time other leading nations have
greatly enlarged their commercial connec-
tons with that country. and are today con-
tending for the supremacy in the trade of
| those shores within the past four years In
deed the number of French and Germa, YES.
aels landing on tho two coasts of Can,r,l