The National tribune., 1893-04-06
THE HAWAIIAN QUESTION.

THE HAWAIIAN QUESTION.
There is really but one question in regard
to Hawaii, and that is whether we shall
| take the country or let Great Britain seize
| it. There is nothing else to consider.
We may indulge in fabby sentimental
| izing about the rights of the natives, the
| comfy of nations, the absorption of terri
| terry outside our borders, but Great Britain
| will waste no time with such nonsense. She
| is not built that way. She devoutly believes
that Britannia ought to rule the seas, and
if opportunity offers she viii snatch up
Hawaii, just as she took Gibraltar away
from the Spanish, Alden from the Turks,
Malta from the knights of St John, the
Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch, and
score of other naval strongholds that she
thought desirable to strengthen her control
of the seas of the world. She has always
considered her own wants first and the
rights of other people afterward.
Without the slightest regard to the terri
torial integrity or the dignity of Spain, she
seized Gibraltar, and has now held it for
nearly two centuries This is the gateway
of the great Mediterranean Sea, and as long
as she holds it no vessel can pass in Or out
without her permission. Her control of it
completely separates two parts Of the French
coast, and France is now contemplating
building an enormously expensive canal in
order that she may take her vessels from
one coast to another without obstruction by
England. Not content with holding the
gate between the Mediterranean and the
Atlantic, she seized the ancient isle of Malta,
in the center of the Mediterranean, and
| made it fortress of the greatest strength,
where she could gather, provision, aud pro-
tect her feet.
When the French dug the Suez Canal
England was not satisfied with this control
of all approaches to it through the Mediter-
ranean, but outwitted the French and seized
Alden, which bears nearly the same relation
TO the Red Sea that Gibraltar does to the
Mediterranean. This gave her undisputed
control of both mouths of the canal. Next
she obtained possession of the Island of
Cyprus, which not only strengthened her
control of the suez Canal, but also of the
entrance to the Black Sea.
This gives her the most absolute control
of the coasts of France, Spain, Portugal,
Italy, Austria Turkey. and Russia's southern
| outlet by the way Of the Black Sea. She
| herself lies right across all the entrances to
| water ways communicating with the north
| of Europe, and it ia but short sail from her
| own ports to any of these on the coasts of
Holland, Denmark, Germany, Norway OF
| Sweden. She has almost as firm hold on
Russia's outlets through the Baltic, as she
has on her competitors southern communi-
cations.
She took away the Cape of Good Hope
| from the Dutch, in order to control the sea
| route between India and China and Europe.
| Great Britain has striven hard to secure as
| thorough control Of the coast of the United
| States as she has Of those of European conn
| tries.
| She has spent enormous sums, and is still
spending them, to make Bermuda an impreg-
nable stronghold, from which, in case of
need, to menace our South Atlantic seaboard
and the Gulf Of Mexico. She has fortified
Jamaica, so as to make it the key of the
southern entrance to the Gulf, and she
promptly recognized the necessity of being
where she could control any route across
Panama, and made a firm foothold for her
self on the isthmus in British Honduras
| She has made Halifax one Of the strongest
places in the world, with reference to eur
North Atlantic seaboard.
| She is pursuing the same policy with
| regard TO the Pacific coast. The papers
have told Of the great Notifications erected
at Esquimault, and the powerful guns being
sent thither.
The acquisition Of Hawaii weald be the
GREATEST possible MD to the control Of the