The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-09-15
BRITISH RAPACITY AND ENTERPRISE.

Day after day we hear reports of how
the British government is branching out,
Strengthening its hands at home while
making its outposts secure. Some of the
enterprises accomplished and projected are
almost startling in their proportions and
purposes when closely considered. and
! when their ultimate purpose is taken into
consideration, the other nations may well
ask themselves how they are comparing in
all respects, presently and prospectively,
with the tight little isle'' on the other
side of the Atlantic.
The latest, or, among the latest of the
great projects being pushed in England is
grand steamship service for the Pacific
ocean, the vessels to ply between Van
couver and Hong Kong, for which purpose
Great Britain will pay e45,0O0 per annum
as subsidy, and the Canadian govern
ment will add to it els, 900, making in all
100000 yearly as bonus to the company
This would make the, enterprise. a
paying investment if it never realized: l
cent from its traffic, but we all understand
that the business done will be something
enormous. Everything is now arranged
and the steamers will be running by Janu-
airy Is, 1891, or a little more than year
from now. With close connections with the
CanadianP railway and trans Atlantic
steamers Oh the east, the amount of carry
| ing and other trade that will be taken from
this country can scarcely be computed. We
might, perhaps, by burst Of enterprise
and energy, get on q line of ships before
that of Canada begins active operations,
but judging of the future by the past, such
consummation is not at all likely.
There is another Pacific coast enterprise
in which the subjects, if not the officers, of
Her Majesty's government have already
taken the initiatory step, and that is an
Australian cable. We could put one in
before the English start if we would, but
we won't. 1t is nearer by thousand or
more miles from San Francisco, or say San
Diego, to any point in Australia than it is
from any point in Canada, and the profits
from such an enterprise would be very
great from the beginning. 1t would be a
much greater stretch than any of the At
lantic cables, but would have the benefit Of
considerable way business at the Sandwich
islands, Samoa and New Zealand which the
others have not. It would be a mighty
undertaking, but the profits of it would
correspond; it would certainly pay many
per cent. better than if we wait until the
British have lire and we are left to make
the most out of the position of compe-
titor.
Great Britain's connection with India is,
and in the very nature of things
must remain, practically monopoly,
both as to steamship and Geographic
service. BY these means, she is also con-
nected with Australia on the east, but she
has so far an open field on the west. The
Suez canal dissipated what little chance
there was previously for other nations
dividing the Indian trade to any extent
and this has been consummated and main
tanned by means of the most gigantic sub
sides; and in order TO have another route
to India should the canal fail, the Van
couver enterprise is about to be brought
into existence. But the subsidy is not in
order that services exclusively CONNER
cial and postal may be had by any means
Those who are disposed to think so will
perhaps change their minds by reading
portion of an article in q recent number of
the London Times, which says: ''It will
thus be seen that the new service must not
be Judged entirely as a postal service. 1t
secures to US q number of strategic advan-
tsges and definite addition toI our feet
of armed merchantmen; and in recognition
of this, part of the subsidy will probably
be charged against the military and nGral
expenditures of the year"
Such language is not a threat by any
means; it is not necessarily menace: but
it has a profound meaning which it would
not be to our disadvantage to ponder over.
Those vessels, estensibly carriers Of COM
merce, will in reality be masked batteries,
prepared as against us for either offensive
or defensive operations. In other words,
while quietly thrusting our Asiatic com
merce aside and taking the lions share of
the old worlds traffic, all needed prepare
lions for enforcing such a position would
be in readiness. This scheme successfully
carried out would, as is shown, make San
Francisco and our other Pacific coast sea-
ports merely way stations for the Cana
dian Pacific railway state of affairs
which an Australian Canadian cable would
greatly and Enthusiastically emphasize.
When we think of the probability of
Great Britain not only controlling the |
traffic of the great oceans and fulfl,inaIthe |