The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-02-07
OUR ISLAND NEIGHBQRS.

consider seriously Wnat permanent
relations it shall bear to the neigh
boring islands which, Independent
or owing allegiance to other ma
tions. have by irresistible gravita-
ton become its commercial depend
encies. With respect to Hawaii
final decision may be forced at any
moment by revolutionary move
ment fatal to the reigning house,
while the Cuban question is fast
becoming an American one in the
incompetence of the Spanish gov
eminent to rule, the desire of the
people for annexation to the United
States, and the fact that the island
is already a commercial depend
ency of this country. The letters
of staff correspondent of the Tri-
bune, of this city, leave no doubt
of the favor with which annexation
is regarded by all classes of the
population, save the meagre hand
full of officials sent out by the
mother country to administer the
government of the island, an adj
ministration conducted with the
sole view of exacting the largest
possible amount of revenue.
This popular attitude is in
marked contrast to that which OBJ
tanned prior to the Civil War, when
the question of Cuban annexation
was raised by the Southern slave
owners, and is due to the change
in economic conditions which has
transferred the market of the island
from Europe to America, and
to the conviction of the people
that the only relief from mis-
government and ruin is to be
found in political union with the
United States. Indeed, 80 settled
is the conviction of the islanders,
Spaniards and native Cubans
alike, that both their material and
political interests are indissolubly
allied with those of this country,
that the fact has passed out of the
range of discussion; no question
existing that as part of the Am
erican Union a market would be
found for the sale of their produce
and..from which supplies could be
obtained free from taxation, and
that their local government would
be conducted by the people for the
people. If the advantages to the
islanders are SO great and so po-
tent that it is no wonder that they
look to Washington for relief from
an almost intolerable position,
those on the side of this country, if
not SO easily defined, are so consid
cradle that they should be care
fully weighed, without the preju-
dice which formerly obtained
against responsibility for outlying
possessions.
With the extension of its do
mains from the Atlantic to the Pa
cific, the interest of the United |
States in Cuba, like that in Ha-
wall, has become vital one, and
not only from a commercial but a
military point of view vastly supe-
rior to that possessed by any Eu-
ropean power. The time is rapid |
ly approaching when the Wash
ington government will control an |
isthmian canal, and whether it be |
either the Panama or Nicaragua
canal, the strategical position of |
Cuba will be of commanding i'm
portance to it and the island one
of the keys that should be in AM
erican hands. With the formid- |
able line of marine fortresses esta-
blished by England off the Atlantic |
seaboard, reaching from Halifax to
Bermuda and thence to Jamaica
and Castries, if the canal is COM
pleted without the acquisition of
commanding naval station in the
West Indies, Britain will control
its entrance. With the nearest |
American base of supplies at New
Orleans, and without naval sta
ton in West Indian waters, Eng
land, with her powerful fortifca-
tons at st. Lucia and Kingston,
her navy yards and coaling sta
tions, can close the canal to Amer
lean commerce and convert it into
an English waterway at will. To
wait to acquire properties capable |
of impregnable defence and afford
ing facilities for preventing such |
attack, until the emergency requir-
ing them arises, will be to wait too |
long, and it is a serious question |
whether the time has not come for |
decisive action in the matter. It |
is all the more question because
if Americans do not recognize the |
commercial and political value of
Cuba, it is evident that other ma
tons do, and that in the financial
embarrassments of Spain there is
grave danger that some lease of the
revenues of the island may be
made to the banking syndicates of
London and Paris. Such lease
would mean the government of
Cuba from London and its ultimate
reversion, like that of Egypt, to the
british Government, and the realiz-
alton of that constant nightmare
to those that think at all of the
subject-the passage of the island
under foreign and inimical control,
with untold damage to American
i i