The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1882-08-16

] the fiat whether II shall be.
4 GREAT deal has been written an,
talked Of lately about the stratcgical i'm
portHnce Of tins group of islands. Mos
notable amongst these expressions o
opinion are those of Mr.. Blaine who call,
Hawaii the key to their &C. S. vas
Pacific territory" and a writer in Sydney
who says that a great naval power il
possession of Hawaii could do something
more than merely threaten the Pacific
coasts Of a hostile ncighbor, it could
attack the coast at different points, ETC.
etc The fact is. these Islands are Of
little. if any, strategical importance in a
p5yTfz OF dggrvSsTsU f5osTrs llr=ri,--, Tho
posscssor Of these Islands holds no key TO
any where, except that he may lock other
people ont of them.
Independents they are safe themselves,
and untroubled by the quarTels Of others,
in the hands Of any great naval power
they would be diverted from their present
position Of very considerable industrial
and wealth producing country TO nero
barrack. and very indifferent one too
Mr.. Blaine was right, when in his letter
to Gen. Comfy. he spoke Of these Islands
as " the sugar raising field Of the Pacific
slope" he was wrong when he spoke of
them as 1.-THE maritime key to the vast
Pacific empire Of the United States" The
key Of the Pacific empire Of the Z. 5 in a
military sense is the Golden Gate. No
KEY 10 any great possession Is more com
pletely defensible than the magnificent
harbor Of San Francisco. The old red
brick casenated fort could be knocked to
pieces by one heavy ironclad, and Amer
lean engineers have long ago not only
acknowledged this, but by their numerous
and almost invisible earth-works on both
sides Of the entrance to the harbor. nota
hlv those on the sand-hills above the old
casematc have practically rendered San
Francisco impregnable TO any force assall-
ing ii from the sea Add to these the
forts OF Alcatraz which would rake any
ship which might succeed in passing the
dcfences Of the gate, and San Francisco
may be pronounced as impregnable, and
this without hinde1ing her commercial
operations for an hour A blockade OF
the Californian coast were 1t practicable,
and never SO strictly maintained would
serve no useful object Illimitable re
sources Of coal. corn. iron. all the neces-
saries Of civilized life are accessible to her
by land. and all that any blockading fleet
could do. would be to burn out its coal,
and 90 for more, even supposing the
blockaders We're superior in force to the
blockadcd
Here then Is the true ksy of the Pacific
slope. These Islands have nothing to do
with It from a military point of view. Fur
thermorc. Great Britain owns Vancouver
Island both Esquimalt and Victoria
harbors are defensible, but Barclay Sound
may be made as defensible as San Fran
cisco itself In the hands of Russia are
the two great fortified harbors Of Petro-
poulsl and Nladeyostock, in the South
the French hold and can maintain depots
the Society Islands and the
and in the southwest in New
Caledonia. while Great Britain again
holds the two hundred islands of the
Fijian group. and the completion of the
Panama Canal would add to the import
ance Of Fiji at the expense of Hawaii. so
also VIII the completion of the Canadian
continental railway add to the i'm
portance OF British Columbia
The writer Of the letter from Sydney
printed bv the Saturday Pres says that
. were Hawaii in the possession of Russia
it would be made the Malta of the Paci
fic. :" very truly. but cti bono. II has been
already shown that the key of the Pacific
slope Of the United States Is San Fran
cisco. the key Of the Pacific slope of the
British possessions Is IN Barclay Sound
or Esauimalt. Hawaii. is the key to
nothing at all.
Let rs suppose that Hawaii, that l.,
Honolulu he made the Malta of the Pa
cisco does any one realize what this
means Malta and its dependencies Coco
and Cumino may be described as one vast
fortifcation wherein all interests are sub
scrvient TO the one great idea, Z. e mill
tary strength.
Imagine Honolulu as Malta of the
Pacific" from the water front to Bereta-
nis street would I've nothing but batteries
and barracks In Malta and Gibraltar
all civil considerations are subject to mill
tary necessities. and system Of permits
and licenses Is imposed on every business.
Oahu IS not the key, and cannot be the
kew of anything. One smart cruiser with
Der steam launches could blockade the
island and starve it out in a month
while San Francisco with Its impregnsble
Golden Gate has the whole continent
behind it. Here. every ton Of coal. every
bag Of -four, every article Of warlike
weapons and stores must be brought
across at least two thousand miles of
ocean.
Beneath the towns Of Gibraltar and
Yaletta are acres of subterraneap stores
md granaries always containing PROV
lions and munitions for q sufficient garTi-
on through a siege Of several year Any
'ortifed port on these Islands puld