The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-12-19

thur as we'll as by all experienced
Americans, and none know better
than our Army officers of rank our
extremely cordial relations with the
German empire
It is unfortunate that important
officers cannot express themselves
with any freedom in private conversa-
ton with civilians without some idiotic
listener supplying the press with dis
torted version of their language. In
this case it was worse, for the distor-
ton got into an official document and
so is all the more capable of pro-
ducing annoyance and friction. An
Army officer who is believed to have
spoken in an unfriendly way of the
Germans and is quoted as saying that
we must prepare for a war with that
nation within a short time, has his
usefulness seriously impaired. No Of
| ficer could reach high command in
time of peace who was SO utterly
wanting in discretion If one should
so far forget himself as to talk in
that way in the confidence of private
intercourse there are hardly words to
appropriately express the condemna-
ton which should meet one so dis.
| loyal to his friend as to repeat them.
TALKING OFFICERS.
Under the above head the Call says:
Several army and navy officers in
recent years have talked too much.
Some of them have embarked on the
rough seas of domestic questions and,
like General Funston, have talked
themselves to an enforced standstill.
/ n hox m
the broader ocean of International
questions and have undertaken to Gre
| ate issues with other countries en-
parrassing to our Government.
| In regard to this practice a question
of veracity has arisen between General
Macarthur of the regular army and
| Colonel Jones of the Hawaiian militia.
| In report to Governor Carter, in
which he enlarged upon the import
ance of the island militia, the Colonel
said he had the assurance of General
Macarthur that we are on the eve
of war with Germany. This was
accompanied by an exposition of Pan
Germanic spirit to the effect that the
Kaiser was forcibly promoting a SUBJ
stantial union of all men of German
| blood wherever domiciled, to support
by sympathy and uprising the spread
/ of the empire. In support of this
view General Macarthur was reported
as lamenting that the Germans in the
United States studiously avoided en-
| listing for the Spanish war, and he
put this down with other signs and
tokens in the political earth and sky
| to demonstrate that wherever Ger
man goes he carries the empire and
! its militarism with him. He was re-
ported as disturbed also by the fecun-
4 dity of the Germans, which was repre-
sented as deliberately planned to ere
ate a surplus population for the pur-
! pose of migrating and carrying the
empire with it.
| portentous prophecy was given to him
/, wrote it down and reported it to the
Governor of Hawaii, intending there
by to create a thrill that would inure
to the benefit of the militia. Now
comes General Macarthur declaring
that the report exaggerated and dis
| torted what he did say, but he refrains
from stating how it looked and was
worded before it was refracted in the
prism of Colonel Jones' military en-
thusiasm. Jones comes into focus
long enough to say that he did not
intend his report of the conversation
to be made public and is supported
by Governor Carter, who says the pub
lication was unauthorized and occur
red through a misunderstanding. This
moves us to offer the advice that off,
GERS do not talk with tattlers and that
/ tattlers do not tattle to officers
/ The net result of the affair is that if
the expressions in regard to Germany
and the Germans We're not the senti-
ments of General Macarthur they were
the views of Colonel Jones, so that
! they are only one remove any way.
/ 1t is not for regular officers of the
/ army or navy to create internationa
complications by walk or conversation
7 Our system of government wisely con-
| fides international affairs to the execu-
| tive, who should not be embarrassed
/ by military subordinates. Nor is it
( the function of a militia colonel in
Hawaii or elsewhere to sniff the battle
afar off and thereby begin the en-
broiling of his country with a friendly
! foreign power.
AS far as the Germans in the United
States are concerned they seek nat
uralization as soon as the law permits
and are among our best alien born
citizens. The first great migration of
I Germans hither followed the revolu-
ton of 1S4S They came from Schles-
/ wig-Holstein and Bavaria mostly, but
| there are many Prussians. Their
/ leaders, Sehurz, Sigel, Ottendorfer,
/ Hassurek and others, became Ameri-
cans in spirit and purpose. They set
| the pace for all Germans who have fol-
| lowed them, and it is probable that
there are among us none who have
cherished in greater purity American
sentiment. They did what some other
aliens have failed to do. They left
| behind them the politics, the jealous
| les and contentious, the grudges and
revenges of the Old World, and adj
dressed themselves with spirit and in
| telligence to the public affairs and
higher politics of their adopted coun-
| try, as they did to it's best industries
and larger enterprises.
This is not saying that they forgot
| the Fatherland, but they remembered
Il