Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1907-08-23
Would KEEP FLEET
ON ATLANTIC COAST
Hope Expressed That
Ships will Not
Go West

Sen. Eugene Hale was asked by a
New York Herald correspondent III
Ellsworth, Maine, his opinion as to
whether the Atlantic fleet should be
sent to Manila or to stations on the
Pacific coast.
Il hope and believe that the fleet
will not be moved in the direction i'll
dicated," the Maine senator replied.
Il have seen nothing that leads me
to believe Pres. Roosevelt has ordered
or intends to order great fleet OF
warships into Japanese or contiguous
waters. The scheme had its birth with
THE general board of the navy, which
for three or four years in order to
magnify the navy exploited war
scare with Germany. When the peo-
pie got tired of this they tried the
same performance with Japan.
MANY, but by no means all, naval
officers, approve of it and probably the
general staff of the army. The two
military branches OF the government
live and thrive upon war, but there
never has been day when it was
safe to leave to them the policies that
make for peace or war. The army
and navy do not view war as dam
ger or calamity, but as an opportunity.
81 look to see Pres. Roosevelt take
a broader and wiser and what in the
end will be the more popular view ana
while | have mad no late consultation
with him, | take it the last thing he
would desire is that any act of his
administration should bring on war
with Japan or any other power or
should add to the danger of such a
conflict.
"The people of Japan generally and
the members of the government OF that
empire, are honestly and faithfully set
ting themselves to preserve peace and
to devote the energies of Japan to the
building up of her peaceful interests,
but these happy influences are OPP
posed in Japan by a war or lingo party
that at any moment, by appealing to
the passion and resentments of The
people may upset the ministry and
substitute for it lingo or war gov
eminent.
There is no pretence whatever that
Japan in any way threatens us or any
of our possessions. Our wise secretary
of state is at this moment trying to
negotiate treaty with Japan that will
settle all controversies and silence all
war alarms. Does anybody believe the
despatch of great war fleet into
Asiatic waters would help the secre-
tary in his efforts to preserve peace.
Congress has been generous in its
appropriations and under them we
have built what is today, with the
ships now building, probably the sec
Iond naval force in the world. Sena-
twice before voting these appropri-
ations had they supposed that when
a great force of war ships had been
assembled the first enterprise would be
an expedition into Asiatic waters upon
the other side of the globe, carrying
with it the imminent danger of arous-
ing the resentment of a great people
with whom we are at peace and with
whom a war would be a wickedness
almost past human conception.
Il do not believe either now or in
the near future the President will is
sue any such order or commit his adj
ministration to course which from
the moment the order is issued is
likely to turn the people of a great
empire, who are now our friends and
with whom we are at peace into .
condition of mind that will leave then
now and hereafter as our enemies.