The Hawaiian gazette., 1900-12-14
AS SEEN BY
The GERMAN
Impressions Of Hawaii
From Cologne.
ESTIMATE OF UNCLE SAM
Writer in a FatherIiod Newspaper
Tells Of the Islands
Importance.

newspaper gives a Fatherland view o
America's acquisition of Hawaii and il
taken from the Public opinion of Lon
don:
1t is useless to mourn for the de-
struction of the people of Hawaii; yet
the thing goes on with melancholy
celebrity before our eyes and in few
decades will be an accomplished fact.
1t has been long known that the ka-
nakas of Hawaii could not survive con-
tact and intercourse with the white
races, and from the day of their dis
covery by Europeans 1t has only been
a question of how long a time they
could resist the shock of altered con-
ditions. Yet 1t is a gloomy thought
that the most highly developed people
of the South Seas must fall victim
to the civilization of the Caucasian
races. The kindred races of Tahiti the
Marquesas Islands, the Tonga group
and of Samoa (the earliest home of the
Polynesian races seem to be able to
bear up against the new order of things
far better than the more northerly ly-
ing Hawaiians; and these latter have
succumbed only less slowly than the
Maories of New Zealand to the British
Australian methods of development by
gin and opium.
Their position was their ruin. They
held the largest group of Islands, mag
nificently situated between California
and China, between Canada and Aus
tralia, and their doom was sealed from
the moment when the great CONNER
cial powers of the world began to rec
ognize the value of the Pacific ocean
AS early as 1851 the American Admiral
Dupont, in the memorandum to Con-
sress on the protection of the coasts
of the United States, declared that the
possession of the Hawaiian Islands
was absolutely Indispensable to the
superiority of the American flag in the
Pacific, and the repeated attempts
made at different times by England,
Russia and Japan to obtain control of
Hawaii afford further proof of the high
opinion of the Importance of the Is
lands entertained by the other pow
ers that dwell round the Pacific.
The fact is that a naval base in the
north of the ocean from which active
operations could be carried out is
condition precedent for the command
of the Pacific. No warship, not even "a
swift modern cruiser, with increased
fuel accommodation, could engage with
an enemy on the enormous deserts of
this great ocean without a safe base
in some secure harbor wherein to refit
and coal. In the South Seas the vari-
Gus groups of Islands are disposed of.
In Samoa the United States has OBJ
tained the only useful harbor, Pago
Pago, in Tutuila. and Germany has had
to submit to this with bleeding heart
in order to exchange the dangerous
proximity Of Great Britain for the
more welcome presence of America.
But in the whole of the northern half
of the ocean there is nothing except
Hawaii which could form naval base
of the first rank. Honolulu itself is in
deed only a moderate harbor; it scarce
ly affords shelter for the ever-increas-
ing number of ships that visit it. Be
sides there is no large extent of smooth
water. such as is required for the pro-
lection of dry docks, workshops, coal
and ammunition stores against invest
ment-the deep fair way runs on the
other side of the coral reef, to within
one kilometer of the shore. so that a
deep drawing battleship with a few
shells could destroy all wharfs, etc,
before it could be driven off by the
forts. Even though powerful fortifica-
tions, to command wide distances,
could be built on the extinct volcanoes
which lie Immediately round the CAPT
tai (and the Washington admiralty is
busy preparing plans for such forts), Il
modern warship Is more than n match |
for any land fort, and a fixed mark !
ashore may expect more damage from |
ships gun than a warship in full |
steam is likely to suffer from n garr- |
sons batteries.
The faults of Honolulu as a harbor .
from a strategic point of view were !
well known in America long before any
publicity was given to the project for
getting a firm grip over Hawaii, and |
experienced admirals under orders from |
Washington had carried out n thorough |
survey of the coast line before the |
other nations had begun to suspect any
tendency to expansion on the part of
the United States. The result of these
years of quiet work was the decision to
construct an American naval base at
Pearl Harbor, place lying about thir- |
teen kilos. west of Honolulu, which on |
the maps is called Pearl River, though |
there is no river there and no pearls. I
There is no doubt that this will be a |
place of the first Importance in the fu-
ture wars in the Pacific. 1t lies on the
south coast of the Island and the har-
Dor Is a lagoon, connected with the sea
by long, narrow channel like n river,
about five kilos. long. The harbor it.
self is divided on the north side into
three bays, which run up into the land
like little fiords and seem to be intend
ed for docks and the like. The shore is
coral and rock. so that buildings can
be easily erected. The surrounding
country is fiat and dull. but fruitful.
and there is plenty OF fresh water, and
in fact Pearl Harbor is far more suited
to be naval base than Pago Pago.
One can but admire the foresight of
the American naval office, who set /
themselves thirty years ago to the task