CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 296, 9 May 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

HANDS OFF THE PACIFIC! | The nations whose shores are washed by I the Pacific Ocean hope that its name will J never belie it. It lias been frequently prophesied of late years that the Pacific will in the future be the theatre of the world's most tremendous happenings, anil it seems improbable that one hemisphere, or any part of it, should for ever escape the trials that have always beset nations. In most countries there has arisen a belated desire for brotherhood, a desire fostered by a vague fear of the future and the instinct of self-preserva-tion. From Sydney we hear that the Governor of Hawaii is president of the "Hands Round the Pacific Club." The title sounds kindly and fraternal, but there is no doubt "that the members of the club would rather express it "Hands off the Pacific!" A protective confederation of Pacific lands pledged to amity in perpetuity, might ensure peace within ami defy danger from without. Increased activity in the Pacific may be the result of increased commercial necessity, and the development in trade without corresponding increase of white people necessarily calls for "Hands round the Pacific" in its protective and not its social aspect. Sir Joseph Ward is president of this club, and there is no doubt that ho is fully seized of the importance of mutual help and brotherly love as aids to ideal relationship in countries as yet in their infancy, and big with prospects of richness, the like of which the world has not yet seen. The proposed discussion on those matters at Honolulu will be of immense interest to the peoples of Pacific countries, especially if the eminent men to gather there go further than a little vague theory and affectionate vocal brotherliness. There can be no Pacific confederation based on sentiment, and the cement that binds the brotherhood must necessarily be commercialism. While, for instance, there is any trade jealousy between Australia nnd New Zealand —as there assuredly is —the domestic concerns of one country will not vitally concern the other. This is true of all other Pacific countries.

JACK TAR JUNIOR. News comes that H.M.S. Powerful, the flagship of the Australian station, is to go out of commission. Reference to the fact that she is to become a hulk at Devonport (Eng.) is useful as showing that her "fighting life"—although she has never fought—.has been thirteen years, and that she cost about a million pounds. Tt. is gratifying that she should not have been called upon to stem ail invasion of Australia during her presence in the Commonwealth waters, mainly because her gear has generally been out of order. The First Lord of the Admiralty has lately said that he will continue the policy of ''scrapping" the older and more useless vessels. We have in New Zealand waters an obsolpte and small gunboat, the Amokura, thought for the training of bows in seamanship. Tf the State concedes that it is a reasonable undertaking to train boys for the mercantile marine, into which they enter exactly on the same footing as other ordinary Roam en, it will also concede that the Amokura is too small to supply the necessary recruits to privately owned shipping companies, and might call on the companies to assist in buying larger vessels, which Mr. McKcnna will "scrap" if nobody wants them. The point may have occurred to the people that the St-i'c-traincd boys are not being trained to the service of the State. Some of them, of course, drift into the navy, but they might just as easily drift into it if they had not been trained aboard the Amokura. Thev might just as easily have become ordinary seamen in the •ncrcmtile marine, even if the State had not accepted them for service on its g'innoat. whereon it is impossible to give them a real grounding in modern naval matters. Tt is difficult to decide the reason for the Amokura. for although one cannot find fault with the "running" of the ship, one is unable to see that it is of permanent benefit to the State. If the State benevolently trains boys for the use of shipping companies, at some little expense to the nation, it might as justly take the responsibility of training hoy's and paving their expenses for the use of, other businesses. No other country has a Stnt.p-owned ship where boys are trained for any other purpose than State service. and one might be pardoned for believing that the initial idea in the mind of Mr. Scddon when he set up this little (loafing school was that the boys might be invariably drafted into the navy. Presumably under the new defence regulations these bovs are liable to land service in the cadet braueb of the Territorial forces, seeing that we have no sea defence branch of tile forces. If it were laid down that a proportion of hoys should be really trained on the sea for

sea defence purposes, some of the doomed vessels that Mr. McKenna threatens to "scrap" would be much more useful for the purpose than the poor little Nile gunboat that has long outlived its usefulness, except as a training school for recruits to private shipping companies.