The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1920. AMERICAN “FRONTIER OF FREEDOM.”

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3632, 19 November 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1920. AMERICAN “FRONTIER OF FREEDOM.”

With which is mcorpornted “The Taihape Post and Wairaarino News ’’

A now war danger is looming over the far eastern horizon. Despite official assurances of good faith and understanding obtaining between Official japan and Official America the popular sentiment in neither country reflects any such happy condition. The United States people are agitating for placing on the Statute Book such . laws of race distinction as cannot <3O otherwise than raise widespread resentment in Japan. It is an indignity intolerable to the Japanese for the United States to enact a law which" virtually establishes the opinion that ? they are unfit for one reason or another for associating Avith the motley racial group which comprise the United States’ population. The Japanese would not quarrel over an understanding being arrived at which prohibits any further influx of Japanese labour into the States, particularly into California, but. they contend, that to legislate in that direction is to invito all other nations of the world to pn«s almost precisely similar laws. Hence, while this agitation against association with the Japanese is pervading the Unitcfl States, the crop of resentment it is raising in Japan is growing apace. It has even reached the stage of a popular clamour for a declaration of war, aufl what the outcome may yet be it would be difficult to estimate, From recent cables it seems ’ that only Japanese officialdom is remaining from taking any pa'rt in out-* ward demonstrations, but it is not easy to understand that so pronounccd a war spirit is not even at this moment shared by all classes. There are two countries notably engaged in feverish preparation for war, those two countries are the U hlTcd' States land Japan. There arc two countries professing friendship with the Entenre which did the irreducible minimum in securing the defeat of Teutonic militarism consistent with their own safety, which emerged from trie great war immensely more wealthy than when they entered it; those two countries are the United States and Japan. While the Americans recA-

with, open arms the scum of white races, they draw the line against | coloured people. The colour line is an obsession, a bogey, the fear and hatred of which is instilled into American children much as hatred and fear of Britain was nur'ured and encouraged from infancy ih German children. Americans and I Japanese atmospheres are charged with war. but neither nation is ready, nor are the conditions essential for success in a great war present in either country. From the racial mixture constituting collective' American citizenship it is understandable that the nature of the enemy within would enable it 1o give the Government ( sra v- iTm'blo vo r ' n it to b 'eoroo j of the principals in a great, war. The forces of the Internationale are strong in America, of which the astute Jap- ’ anese are quite well aware. The Americans were very seriously hampered in the part they played in the late war by the enemy within, and the Japanese arc well able to 'assess the value | such an enemy would be to them in a war with America. Since KTovember, 1918, the United States’ policy has resulted in astounding naval and mercantile expansion. To-day the Americans are actually boasting that Britain no longer “rules the waves”; that America is already the superior of Britain in naval and mercantile force and equipment. It is no longer possible to understand bow America, with such a navy can any longer claim adherence to the Monroe Doctrine they have not yet . ceased to boast about. Least of all nations on earth the Japanese do not fail to attach the importance to those preparations for war Americans are too obviously making. American naval writers state that the growth of American sea power should not be interpreted according to European formulas. Is not a statement of this kind the veriest flapdoodle? Some people

were insane enough, to believe that sim. ilar protestations from Germany about

the growth of German sea-power were quite believable. No one believes today anything but that German seapower was accumulated for purposes of aggression, and no one is likely to be so intensely foolish as to think that the rapid multiplication of American warships is being made for securing and maintaining peace. Americans have been striving since peace was declared to possess the ships, the men and the money that will enable them to wage a successful war against some other people or peoples, there need be no mistake made about that. The Americans fully realise that if an American-Japanese war is precipitated Britain again becomes the virtual “hub of the universe;" Britain would again be paramount in finance and armaments. Then, are the Americans building up armaments to waste them on Japan, or will they, first seek to cripple their rival for sea supremacy? It is quite correct to say that in no country in the world is the spirit of Imperialism more rampant than in

the United States at the present time

do not admit that it is Imperialism; they state that it is a protecive and stahlising policy aiming at American increase of influence—they should say power—in keeping international law and order. While Americans are nurturing a hitter opposition to Britain in connection with the Irish , question, they are, admittedly, "under a guiding eye, and with a strong hand attempting to extend their frontier of freedom.” This extension of the frontier of freedom is involving American domination over all Carribean republics, anfl control of important West Indian islands. It is frankly admitted that Americans have secured a legal basis for controlling influence in Cuba, Porto Rico. San Domingo, Haiti and the Virgin Island. Prom this it will be plainly seen that while Americans are thusly extending their "frontier of freedom” they seem particularly anxious that Britain’s frontier of freedom should no longer include Ireland. Whether the protestations oT Americans about the purposes of their huge naval construction are honest or not, the evidence against their sincerity is very strong indeed. Is it probable that if a war with Japan was alone in contemplation that so much time and wealth would bo expended In making American Panama Canal control from the Carribean Sea end vir(tually incontestible by the acquisition of islands and their defences which make the canal absolutely and entirely American? If the evidence against war with Japan is considered overwhelming is the wrangling with the Japanese people not being continued beyond ordinary safety lines? Defences on the Atlantic coast are proceeding much more thoroughly and rapidly than on the Pacific coast, which makes it appear- as though the American Navy is going to perform the major part of its prospective mission in Atlantic waters against a European foe, and not in the Pacific against .the Japanese. It seems nbt improbable that in the extension of their "frontier of freedom” they may agree to'' draw the line across the Pacific if the Japanese will undertake not to ’ oppose ' them in any extension of their, "frontier of freedom*” in the Atlantic. With such furious hurry in building up a navy that puts that of Britain into the background, it is idle to urge that intentions are perfectly peaceful: what does any man buy a gun and cartridges for but to shoot something or somebody? Americans evidently mean to shoot.