The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1889-03-20
the Pacific ISLANDS.

ne IaClllC ocean extends from
cast TO west nearly II, 900 miles in
its greatest width, and 5000 miles
from north to south. 1t covers very
nearly one-tbird of the whole sur
face Of the globe, and it is especi-
ally remarkable for the immense
number of its islands, most of them
OF very small size. These islands
and island groups are comparatively
few in the eastern half of the ocean,
but in the western portion they are
literally beyond computation, and
lying, as they nearly all do, between
the tropics or but little beyond
them, there is certain uniformity
In their climate and productions.
Very few of the groups are fitted
to be the homes of self-sustaining,
civilized communities, able to hold
their own and resist aggression, and
it is sufficiently evident that they
must all be brought, sooner or later,
under subsection to the oolonizing
Powers. These are practically but
three, England, France and Ger
many, for Spain and Holland do not
seek to extend their possessions, land
Italy has not gone beyond the coast
Of Abyssinia.
1t is in some respects to be re-
GREETED that the native races of these
Summer lands are doomed to a
speedy extinction, for there can be
no doubt that they lead, on the
whole, substantially happy and easy
lives, and pass from their careless
childhood into careless maturity
with less than the average human
anxiety and fret. Such an existence
seems to the civilized man to be
waste of the powers that ought to
be developed in schools, and en-
press themselves in newspapers and
steamships and elections; but, after
all, it is something to have lived in
the enjoyment of health, even with
in n narrowed circle of ideas and
emotions. Beyond this circle these
islanders cannot go, and they wither
in the presence of the European. If
there is such thing as manifest
destiny, it is very clearly before us
in the case of the Pacific islands.
They are to be divided among the
Great Powers.
England, as usual, is foremost in
the field, and has so many points in
her favor that she can afford to be
less eager than the others in making
new annexations. Her possession
of Australia and New Zealand give
her an enormous advantage over any
competitor in the Western Pacific.
She has made several mistakes, it is
true, in more recent years, in allow
ing the approach of the two Powers
she has to fear; but she is still mis-
tress of the situation, though the
Germans have made them selves
strong in New Guinea and the Bis
marck Archipelago, and the French
have secured the New Hebrides.
The wealth and the large population
of the English colonies insure their
superiority to those of the other ma
lions, and make it clear that in
future not very remote the control
of the great ocean will be in English
hands. II would have no practical
effect upon the result if France and
Germany continued to occupy, here
and there, the smaller groups as yet
unclaimed. There are many OF
these with excellent harbors avail
able for the shelter of feets or
cruisers in time of war, but they are
all too far from the resources of the
mother country at the other side of
the world.
One group, on which England I'M
questionabIy has her eyes, lies so far
away in the North Pacific that it
properly falls within the sphere of a
large American policy; and if the
United States are ever to look be-
yond their own borders for colonies
or for naval stations, it is to the
Sandwich Islands, and not to Samoa,
that they must lun. The ultimate
fate of Samoa interests England far
more than it ever can this country !;
but the Sandwich Islands hold q
position not less commanding to-
ward our Pacific Coast than that of
Bermuda on the Atlantic. With
that group of islands, well fortified
as they could easily be, in our
hands, the safety of our western
coasts would be assured. Other
annexations in that part of the world
would be uncalled for, and even
dangerous by multiplying occasions
for collision and for strife; but it
should be the aim of every Ameri-
can statesman TO raise our flag once
for all at Honolulu Lesle's Illus
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