The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1905, 1898-02-04
Continued from Ist pdge.)


present admiral, but by invitation
with another admiral on board his
ship. | have been guest of one OF
the grandest and uoblest OF sailors,
Captain Barker, on board the Phila.
delphia. | have been invited by a
British captain. 1 have done all
these things and by most careful
questioning l have never discovered
the definition Of "strategical posi-
ton" How you can make q nation
stronger by putting a gulf two
thousand miles between your two
forces, and by taking little vulner-
able outpost and making it what
you call invulnerable, is what | can
not sect is beyond my vision,
These islands will not and never can
be for us a good thing in time Of
war.
WHAT OF THE TINE OF PEAoE2
In the first place, they do not
grow our products and so afford no
field for the American farmer. They
impert all their wheat, barley, etc,
with the exception OF course of a
very trifling amount that may be
raised there. Remember too, that
you are dealing politically with a
people who have put their foot on
the necks Of kings, with people
whose blood generation ago is all
that makes them Americans, with a
people who will be much worse in
our councils in case OF peace than
our Southern brethren once we're to
the North. That people will never
take mo" for an answer. They will
have their way at any cost. They
will be dangerous to you in case OF
war. Who shall keep you from
their treachery? How many wars
have been lost by treachery7 When
our friend the Admiral Belknap has
his magnificent place down there at
Pearl Harbor (?) and has his great
fleet there, who shall save him from
treachery7 These people so.called
Americans, have been treacherous.
Once treacherous, they will be
treacherous again. la the very mo.
ment our councils say to them, "You
SHALL" you shall notw that very
moment will come the old threat,
and
SUPPOSE WE ARE AT WAR WITH ENG
| am only supposing it, and should
have offended them, we are betrayed
by them into the hands of our enc
mics, who shall insure us against
that? 1t would be financial suicide
for them to abrogate the Recipro-
city Treaty and subject sugar to
duty, which they must do to make q
British alliance in time OF peace.
All l can say now is that we stand
as nation in perfectly proper pc.
sitiop. We stand now an impregna-
BILE square. We are like one of
Napoleon's squares. We cannot be
attacked on any corner, from the
North, or from the South, from the
Pacific or from the Atlantic. We
are absolutely invulnerable. But
the moment we go outside OF this
safe policy which the country has
followed for one hundred years, and
the moment we expand ourselves
into Colonial posse ssions, that mo.
ment we make ourselves vulnerable
nation. We are then
AT THE MERCY OF ANY FOE.
Take the case OF Alaska, which has
been cited. Why we should never
have trouble about Alaska2 If we
should get into war with Russia, we
would let her land as much as she
pleased in Alaska. Then there are
the Aleutian Islands, what OF them7
Well, she might land on the Aleu-.
tian Islands as mu as much as she
pleased, Our own property, our
country is the country We are bound
to defend. ! a. rec that the mere
point of honor would oblige us to