The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1903-11-24
THE NAVAL DEMONSTRATIONS.

The orders given the Battleship and
Cruiser squadron on Asiatic service to
rendezvous at Honolulu is, of course,
a move in municipalities. Doubtless it
has reference to Panama affairs. That
any trouble with Europe is impending,
does not strike us as a tenable theory.
Europe wants a Panama canal; and
the prompt recognition of the new 18TH
milan republic by great powers shows
that there is no disposition in the Old
World to challenge the claims of the
f! Panama insurgents or of the United
States as their protector.
But what of the New World? When
! the news came about the Panama revolt
and the American part of it, the Adj
/, vertiser remarked upon the bad effect
it was certain to have upon the Latin
! American republics. At last the North
! Americans had resumed their southern
march. First they had wrested an en-
pire from Mexico; now they We're maxi
ing trouble south of Mexico and getting
a sovereign position on the soil. What
next? Might not these land-hungry
! eXpanSionsts-men who had even
crossed the widest of oceans to wrest
provinces from Spain-might not they,
with all their talk of Manifest Destiny
go on to some more imperial conquest
than Panama? Having the New World
h.i ri
might they not choose to own it and
command it's trade? A strenuous Pres
ident is in power at Washington. to
what far regions might his ambitions
not extend?
We may be sure that these apore-
tensions were felt by every Latin
American when the full story of the
Panama revolution went abroad. Here
were the Yankees at last, come to their
very doors. Foreign traders, uneasy
over the prospects and anxious to en-
bitter South America against North
America for trading purposes, played
as best they could and are still plav-
ing, upon the chords of prejudice and
passion. Without Il doubt the Presi-
appealing to all South America to en-
ter into an offensive and defensive al
lance. Some understanding, leading
that way, was reached long ago when
the Diaz Monroe doctrine was proposed
"a South American pact against any
and every interloper. The latent hostil-
ity of Chile to the United States may
be counted on. Venezuela, owing to our
claims against her and our failure to
interfere when Europe pressed hers,
does not love us. Ecuador, the other
day, expressed official sympathy for
Colombia. Is it not probable that the
ENJOYS of the latter power are at work
in every South American capital to Sc
cure the enunciation of a policy for
bidding any. foreign state to acquire
sovereignty over Latin-American soil
and to frame a joint ultimatum to the
United States? What more natural
under all the circumstances? what
else is there left to Colombia to do in
her own defence save, single-handed
and alone, to enter a disastrous war?
Assuming that matters are so shap-
ing themselves in South America. we
have a fair explanation of the latest
naval news. a powerful squadron is
ordered here to await a summons to
sAi no Of Il
Panama, thus making a large enough
naval force combined to threaten every
Spanish American port on the Pacific
side. Two battleships, carrying anoth-
err Admiral have gone to Colon and
back of them, conveniently stationed in
the West Indies, is the North Atlantic
fleet to which they belong. At word
the whole of the South American coasts !
may be patroled by the strongest fleet
ever seen in those waters. There can |
then be no sea-transfer of troops TO
Colombia and 'land-transfer is inn
possible.
Perhaps the simple concentration OF
ships will checkmate the Colombian
diplomacy; perhaps the mere threat OF
1t will. as it did when the orders TO
Rear Admiral Watson in 1898, to so TO
Spain brought back Camara's fleet from
Suez and made Watson's voyage UNI
necessary. AS to that the events OF
December will probably make clear.
Meanwhile the immense strategic util-
ity of Hawaii-one of the strong argu-
ments for its annexation-will have
been demonstrated.