The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-10-14
NOTES AND COMMENTS.
October, 1893.

ne new OK Herald OF lew
years ago, we think it was in 1886,
printed In the month of August an
editorial on Imperial Duties and
Responsibilities" which was so
outspoken on the question of the
advisability of the annexation of
the Hawaiian islands to the United
States, the article is reproduced in
full elsewhere. The significant por-
ton of the editorial from the Herald
is as follows and we freely commend
it to the royalists of Hawaii who
have been hanging their hopes on
the present anti-American position
assumed by the Herald: Hawaii
Is the Malta of the Pacific. Her
commerce is almost entirely with
the United States. We are bound
to Hawaii by treaty of recipro-
city. So long as she is independent
or free from foreign influences we
are content that she should govern
herself in her own way, under an
innocent, simple government.
When that government becomes so
helpless as to tempt the cupidity
of the maritime powers it is then
our duty to shelter it under an
authority which the navies of the
world will respect. We take it for
granted that Mr.. Cleveland has
made it known to the maritime
powers that the independence of
Hawaii, so far as they are con-
cerned, and its dependence on the
United States must be accepted
and respected. This is so obvious
that we cannot doubt that Mr..
Bayard has been instructed to s1.-
nounce the Monroe doctrine on the
Pacific with a.s firm tone as Mr..
Adams announced it to South
American and Central American
nationalities sixty years ago."
Now this brings up the question as
to what the Monroe doctrine is and
what is its application to the de-
velopment of American interests.
Our friends the enemy who are at
present writing the anti-American
or "ex-queen" cause through the
Bulletin are of the opinion the
Monroe doctrine would be knocked
into a cooked hat in case the Uni
ted States begins an aggressive
policy in the Pacific. AS our royal
ist contemporary seems to be better
posted than its afternoon rival on
diplomatic complications liable to
occur in the Pacific, we will kindly
hint that the Monroe doctrine as
interpreted by the royalists does
not apply in the Hawaiian matter,
for the reason that when properly
interpreted, this doctrine, as ap-
piled to foreign countries, means
the american" doctrine. In Ha-
waii it has already been proved
that the lines are clearly drawn
between American" and ''anti-
American" which, in plain
English, means that the |
lines are drawn between
royalists and Americans. While
nothing at the present writing is
officially known as to the future
trend which international diplo-
matte affairs may at any moment
assume in the Pacific, still you do
not have to knock statesman or a
journalist, unless he be an amateur,
down to make him appreciate that
perhaps there are certain matters
going on in the world which may
be entirely unknown in the offices
of both our afternoon contempor-
aries. Such things have happened
before, and may happen again, as
incoming dispatches from the outer
world may prove. 1t is with the
kindliest feeling these lines are
penned, and we hope they will not
be misinterpreted. There is, or
should be, no rivalry between
papers in Hawaii
What we need is the closest friend
hip of all Americans outside of ,