The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times THURSDAY. JULY 23rd. 1925. THE FUTURE OF THE PACIFIC.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 July 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times THURSDAY. JULY 23rd. 1925. THE FUTURE OF THE PACIFIC.

Tiikhi: is a mncli travelled journalist aboard the battleship Penn.vsyl vania of the American licet now in Australian waters, and later lit' will be in Wellington. This knight of the pen is Captain Francis McCnllagh oi the ‘‘.New York Herald”. He has been in practically every country in the world where trouble lias existed or been brewing. But not always lias lie Ijcen a journalist. He lias served with both the Russian and British armies. He was with the former when Con llindenburg made his first. onslaught smith of Warsaw in the Oreat War, Alteruard- la- served with tlie- British and was at the Dardanelles in Hilo. He has been a prisoner of war in llnssia and elsewhere, and has had sir h a world-wide experience crammed into his lift. that, not only is lie a world traveller. but also a. distinguished tine! experienced journalist. Naturally, being also an American he has a great vision, not to say imagination. In a recent speech at Hawaii when the American lh'el made its memorable call, be bad an opportunity to give hi- luncy full play, and to us who are situated in the peaceable Pacific Ocean it may not he untimely to hear what this milch travelled soldier-journalist lias to -ay of oiii- future looking Unwind as In- does with his prophetic vision. S]:,. liking at a function at Honolulu. ■ luring the resent visit of the licet. Captain McCullagli suggested the holding of the League of Nations Council sessions in Honolulu. He believed tins to he the logical location I'm- such meetings owing to the- iac-t that it is til,, most peaceful spot on earth, far from the battle-fields of Europe-. He believed the civilisation of the world to be shifting from the Atlantic- to the- Pacific, .last as the discovery of America by Columbus shifted civilisation from the .Mediterranean to the Atlantic, so the war had shifted civilisation from the Atlantic to the 1 aeilic. and the civilisation of Hie Pacthe. would be far superior to ally's thing the- world had yet seen. -‘I hat the various branches ol the AngloSaxon race will play a predominant part in this civilisation," added ( apian, .McCuliagh. "is a fact that need not be insisted on. I'm- they are playing a predominant part now. But n-bat dm-s |ico baps need to be insisted on is llic- piis-sibility tlint the 1 ueiti(. may become-, in course ol time, the' principal centre of Anglo-Saxon activity. (lie centre around which all the English-speaking peoples will lie- grouped. for since the invention of the aeroplane England lias ceased to he an island, and since the (treat War if hits become unable to .support- its excessive population, a population t"’> great for it. and only emigre-gated there h-,-aiise of- exceptional and temporary circumstances. The Anglo-Saxons of England are as sick of the follies of Europe, as tin- Angle-Saxons ol America. and as determined to pursue their own pe-il'tuv path of cieveiojmieni free 1 rum ali entangling alliances. The only country in which they can do so is New Zealand, which in some ol its physical features bears such a striking resemblance to the Motherland. Mflcnulav was wise in making a New Zealander the man who is to sketch the ruins of St. Paul’s from a broken arch „f London Bridge. Ninety per cent of the population ol New Zealand is British. which is more than call he said of (treat Britain itself. Why then should New Zealand's raw products have to go all the- way to England in order to he converted into finished ar-tich-s, which are shipped hack again? Why should England have to depend for its existence cm New Zealand meat, and New Zealand have to depend for its existence on British munitions? Tn certain eventualities, such as the cutting of the long and dangerous line of eonimuiiieatioils. even for a lew months, this perilous interdependence might mean the ruin of both New Zealand and (Boat Britain. The eml of the century may see all the Bradford factories established in New Zealand, and all the other factories as well, may see practically the whole English race settled in new seats under the Southern Cross, may see England itself no longer the centre of tile Emigre, hut. rather, a great garden, a great fortress on the Hank ol Euteipc. a huge naval base, a vast historical muse,rm. containing the archives of the Empire, a palace lor the King, and a council hall lor the M itenagemot of the Anglo-Saxon Sties.