The Washington times., 1902-03-16

the inevitable result of Spanish influence
No race is less fit to amalgamate with o
govern such people as the Filipinos thai
decadent Latin one, whose shadows hay
brilliance attractive to ehildlike, color
loving race. whose faults are principal.
the result of lack Of mental and mora
! rigidity-therefore equally congenlal Il
people who knew nothing Of discipline
and whose virtues are the result Of a lont
| period of civilization and culture. and can
| not be acquired ready-made by even thu
| quickest and most adaptive Of natives"
The carefulness of Mr.. Colquhoun's an
alysis. and his recognition Of the dihicul-
ties of the Philippine problem. are shown
in the foregoing paragraphs.
Needs of Civil Service.
Like most people who have paid any at
tention to colonial affairs, he believes
their best solution to lie in the building
up of q civil service absolutely honest.
phenomenalIy efficient. and with high
ideals of duty. He points out that fact
that in England positions in the colonial
civil service are almost hereditary. Ger
tain families have for generations sent
sons to this service. and tradition has
thus been developed which has a great
influence on the efficiency of the service
He also speaks of, the esprit de corps
which makes the cadets OF the service dis
charge their duty in lonely stations and
out of the way corners with fidelity
which cannot be paid for in money: and
he intimates that before We can hope for
successful government of the Philip
pines we shall have to see to 1t that all
men in the civil service there are Of good
stock and thorough training. This is
probably true.
Several paragraphs of especial interest
occur in the closing chapter, in which,
although the author disclaims the role of
prophet, he nevertheless makes some
shrewd predictions. He says:
I'm dealing with the question Of the mas
terry Of the Pacific the writer has no inten-
tion of usurping the mantle of Elijah and
committing himself to any prophecies as to
the actual details of that struggle by
which, during the coming century. the
mastery will be decided.
"The struggle in the Far East (which
began with the Chino-Japanese war;
came upon us as a surprise and found us
unrrepared 1t Is struggle which must
inevitably be decided by military power.
and therefore will eventually be mainly
fought out-though perhaps bloodlessly-by
those powers which have convenient mill
tary bases. Russia and Japan.
The Great Arena.
"The arena Of the coming struggle is,
however. shifted to an ocean sphere. and
the mastery of the Pacific will be decided
by naval supremacy. and will therefore be
most keenly contested by the great sea
powers.
I'm this new arena there are many fea-
lures the Significance Of which have hith-
erto been unappreciated. Here Orient and
Occident meet, both alike on alien ground.
Little known. unvaiued. neglected, the
events Of the past few years have brought
the Pacific Ocean into such prominence
that, whereas sixteen years ago a British
statesman Of the first rank could hardly
be induced to annex part of an important
island adjacent to Australia. and 1t was
the fashion to call the British oversee
''millstones about our neck"
low the great Powers watch jealously over
the smallest and most remote coral reef
and the whole Of the vast ocean |
IS practically partitioned out into spheres.
"A glance at the map will show how |
numerous are the lines of steamer routes. |
practically a network covering the ocean. |
and all dating from recent years. Cable |
ines have been laid and others are in |
while new ones are pro- |
ected.
"Transcontinental railways have since /
,ridged the distance overland, not only /
rom east to west in America, but from |
vest to east in the European-Asiatic |
and thus approaches to the
Pacific have been opened and It's isolation
destroyed. fresh access to the Pacific
S about to be made in the trans-isthmian
anal. and this complement to the Suez
quite will prove the greatest stimulus to !