The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1904-01-08
JAPAN AND RUSSIA.

Ancient and even modern precedent
are of but little use in estimating tn
claims of international conflicts durin,
the present century. Naval architec
ture and ornaments are constantly be
ing changed, to such an extent tina
of 1894 are obsolete, or nearly so, IL
1904. There has been a revolution als'
in guns, in drill, and in military tactic:
and strategy. which was strikngly
exhibited in the Boer War, and ever
since that comparatively recent strug.
gle has been steadily proceeding.
War is now a question: first, OF
money; second, of organization and
third, of brains, not merely in the
governing authorities, but, in the rank
and file, of an army or navy. The
time was when the issue of a naval or
a military campaign depended chiefly
on numbers, on bone, Drawn and mus
Gle, propelled by ferocity In that
period, which covered many rncient
and modern centuries, race and in
dividual characteristics We're discerni-
BILE. personal heroism was frequently
displayed, and mastery leadership was
an occasional occurrence. There were
many battles, in which the slaughter
was tremendous. But, apart from sem
timents, which are always to be .reas-
of invention, education, and the group
ing of nations in the Twentieth Cen
fury, the wars of the past however
great in their consequences, were in
themselves insignificant. The rout of
10000 Persians by 10000 Greeks, under
Miltiades, at Marathon, the check to
the army of Xerxes, absurdly repre-
scented to have consisted of more Than
two millions and half of men, by
three or four hundred Greeks, at the
pass of Thermopylae, where Ieonidas
lost his head but left an imperishable
memory, the victory of Themistocles
at Salamis, the intestinal struggles in
Greece, in which perfunctory blockades
sometimes lasted for ten years. are all
historically interesting and morally
and intellectually important but they
furnish no criteria for present fore
casts. Won Moltke and his Germans.
prepared and equipped as they were
for the German-Franco War, would
have enjoyed holiday tour through
ancient Persia or ancient Greece. At
Bannockburn. Robert Bruce and his
brave followers could not have lasted
for half an hour under the fire of mod
ern artillery. At Cressy or Poictiers,
such British army as was organized
in South Africa would have annihilated
the French with no appreciate loss.
Marlborough would have felt like a
Liliputian If he could have walked up
and surveyed an American army on |
either side during the Civil War. The |
Spanish Armada was dispersed BY a |
storm, but any one of the war vessels
lately in the harbor of Honolulu .ould |
nave sailed through the midst of 1t in
perfect safety or have stood off at a
distance and blown the entire aeet to
pieces.
Historical retrospects of military or
naval campaigns, therefore, will not
heip TO solve the problem of the out
come OF war between Japan ana
Asu"Sih' Out tiitTe are some deyelOD-
ments in history that bear strongly ON
the origin ana nature of the impend-
ing ditftculty. For ages the Meiiter-
ranean was the seat of power Until
after the discovery of the passage to
India by Vasco de CANA. when Spain.
Portugal, Holland and England trans
ferred the movements of commerce to
the larger scope of the Atlantic. The
gates
the situation of the
Suez Canal, are of minor consequence
In these days, and there is a concur
renee or opinion. fortified by facts, that
the Pacific Is now the theatre of the
expansion OF trade. commerce, and
civilization
Confronting each other I'M Manchu-
ria and Korea, the Japanese and the
Russians represent the antitheses or
TWO conflicting theories of progress. 6