The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-09-20
THE DEMAGOGY OF DAVIES

Reverend Alfred Wills, IN the amazing
notion that a government ordained by
force has no legal status until its tenure
has been approved by the votes of
those whose disastrous rule it had been
organized to supplant. According to
these doctrinaires Mr. Dole and his
associates can make no legal tender
of these Islands to the United States
until the Hawaiian nation, otherwise
the aborigines, have passed upon the
offer at the polls. "Hawaii cannot
forego her sovereignty without ballot"
is a proposition which Mr.. Davies
treats through the tedious columns of
an article that answers the mathemat-
ical definition of ine-length without
breadth. One can but wonder why so
large draught should have been made
on the mother tongue to support so
puerie and trihing a postulate. AS
suredly Mr.. Davies has wasted his time
in as great a degree as he has his read
ers' patience.
Is Mr.. Davies prepared to assert that
his own Government has no legal rights
in India2 Eighty thousand Britlshers
control 400, 900, 900 people there.
Was not force used to establish this
minority rule in the interests of Anglo
Saxon civilization Was a plebiscite
ever held in India to find out what the
native inhabitants desired2 Could not
England legally dispose Of Indian terri
tory in any way that she might deem
fitting2
Again, what of Canada2 Did not
Englishmen seize a large portion Of it
from the French2 When the tri,color
was pulled down and the Union Jack
hoisted was ballot taken2 Did the
thousands and tens of thousands OF
Frenchmen on Canadian soil have any
thing to say as to the form OF national
jurisdiction among themselves If
not, then the original British occupa-
ton was in defiance of morality, justice
and law and should have been held in
allegiance to wait a representative test ?
In spite of this, however, Great Britain
has alwas claimed a perfect title to
Canada by virtue Of her success at war.
Inter anna silent legeS.
There is the current example of
Egypt, a country which, though keep
ing up the pretence Of native or Oriental
rule, is occupied by British troops and
coerced by a British commissioner.
Has any plebiscite been held to de-
termine whether England should stay
or 90? Not at all. And the legal title
of the British Empire to the soil 1t
holds is not impaired by that omission,
the world having acknowledged the fact
from immemorial times that civilized
government that can defend what it has
acquired, from domestic instruction,
is legal government no matter whether
it had gained control by conquest,
seizure or revolution And OF all non.
elective titles, that conferred by revou-
ton is the most valid. 1t is what gave
5000, 900 people of the British Empire
the right to rise against many times
that number and sever the American
colonies from the crown. 1t has, within
three years past, empowered Jorge
Mont and his minority party in Chile
to ruin the constitutional government
of Balmaceda, overturn and deport
Claudio Vicuna, who had just been
elected President of the republic by a
popular vote, and form a new regime,
unsupported by the ballot, but which,
none the less on that account, has
been recognized by all the world.
That the right of the winners of a
revolution to hold or dispose Of their
gains should be referred to the ballot OF
the losers in the same contest, partlcu-
larly where the losers are aborlglnes,
would be too much like a comic turn
in a Gilbert and Sullivan opera to pass
muster among statesmen, politicians
and historical students. When and
where has any civilized government
asserted such a prnciple3 We should
like to hear from Mr., Davies on this
point.
Turning from the sophistry and
persihage of the Davies argument 1t is
but fair to dwell for a moment on the
Davies motive. The revolution OF
of 1903 was the death knell of our
critics private ambitions, and this may
fairly account for his public fears
Kaiulani, heiress to the ex-throne, is
this Englishman's ward and pupil.
Should she come to the crown, Mr..
Davies would play Warwick to her