The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-05-28
FORT|FY|NG HAWAII
Confined from Page one.,

friendliness. Meanwhile, the incom-
ing Of thousands of soldiers and sail
ors and the turning of the peaceful
town into great Gibraltar is already
looked upon with app. ehension by all
lovers of Hawaii II has never yet
been wholesome for any town to be-
come a military garrison. Social and
other problems, already difficult enough
here, cannot fail to grow more per-
picking. At the very point where
we need all the apparatus of a finely
developed civilization we have i'm
ported the machinery of militarism
and have made the uniform of fight
Ing men the conspicuous feature on
the streets and in society.
To many OF YOUR readers the annex
alton of these islaA.is never seemed
wise or necessary. 1t was at least
unfortunate that the question of their
disposition had to be answered at a
time of war and practically as a war
measure. AS point to be defended
two thousand miles from the coast.
and especially as a point of possible
friction and, International entangle-
ment, it's possession does not seem
very profitable investment. The ara
BILE land, though very productive, is
said not to constitute much more than
GOO square miles. or about oneltenth
of the whole area. In other words,
this arabic land would only make
enough for single county in New
| ,ola Thn vol nf IL
tory is set at about sl35. 100000, name
ly, that of a single third-class city.
The American residents here would
hardly make town of the first rank
| in the State of Massachusetts. No
one today knows where white laborers
are coming from, willing to work the
great sugar plantations for fifteen or
| twenty dollars q month. and at the
same time so free of prejudice as to
take their place shoulder to shoulder
with Japanese. The negroes do not
seem to be wanted here; and the UNI
employed win not come so far from
| New York and Boston. We have evil
IDENTIFY annexed plenty of troubles
along with our paradise of beauty and
| splendor. What If the Orientals at last
| came to outnumber all the white ten
| to one? We can only make them con-
! tented on the. lines of justice and mi
| manity: but never by compulsion of
brute forces or by permanent denial
| of their citizenship, We could not
surely hold them long against their
will by the gunsNof our garrison. No
modern population can be held in this
way.
Such questions as these are not re-
mote from the best Hawaiian thought.
| Thus, one of the ablest men here,
high also in official position, said the
other day in conversation that he had
| always deprecated the revolution
| which set up the republic. On the
| ground of it's effect in unsettling the
native mind which was slowly learn
ing to adjust itself to civilized stand
ards of law, order and obedience.
While he sympathized with the adj
mirable men who guided the revolu-
tion and disapproved of the govern
ment of the late queen. he thought 1t
possible to have made an arrange
ment which would have conserved the
form of govrnment to which the ma
tive Hawaiian had become accustom-
ed. Doubtless this course was easier
| to propose than to carry out. An
| other experienced man remarked that,
though 1t was heresy to say so, ne
believed that the islands were never
so we'll off as under the republic.
And he laughed at the idea of forti-
flying Honolulu against the Japanese.
1t begins to look as If the ideal plan
would have been the naturalization of
the islands after the model of Bel
GUM. by the agreement of the ma
tions bordering upon the Pacific ocean.
Honolulu. standing as it does at "the
crossroads of the Pacific" might
then have been a great free port for
the commerce of the world. This dis
position of Hawaii would thus have
been the first steps towards the neu-
tralization of the Pacific ocean. What
civilized nation really wants to keep
1t as place to fight in, and not rath-
err to travel in and to trade and to
carry on the business of humanity?
Towards some such contamination as
this all the constructive and progress
sive forces of mankind are working
together.
Honolulu, April 10.