WELCOME TO THE AMERICAN FLEET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3000, 24 September 1908, Page 3

WELCOME TO THE AMERICAN FLEET.

ENGLISH PRESS COMMENTS.

Nearly all the leading London papers have made editorial references to the visit of the United States fleet to New Zealand and Australian •waters. The "Daily Mail" observes:—"lt ia matter for regret that we had not a squadron at Auckland to, welcome the American ships when they arrived, but we can safely leave their entertainment to the large-hearted New Zealanders and the hospitable people of Sydney and Melbourne. Indeed, the welcome that has been prepared could not be warmer if it were a British fleet. All this enthusiasm is to the good. The colonies are keenly interested in the question of the mastery of the Pacific, which some day will have to be settled, and, as the Prime Minister of New Zjaland said the other day, the navy a cower which has interests prao Meally identical with our own ojght t. orf received with hearty warmth. I h only the necessity for concent uii g our naval strength in home w tjrd which prevents the British « ivy from taking a prominent part i i the celebrations of welcome." "The warmth of the welcome extended by New Zealand and Australia to the United States battleships one thinking," says the "Daily Express." "We do not suggest that it is necessary for a formidable British fleet to be sent on a junketing tour round the world, but we do say that our fleet should be suitably represented in all the seven seas. . . It is idle to suppose that our oversea dominions do not share, with due mor.ifications, in the wonder more openly expressed by the islanders of Samoa, when they saw the American bat'.leships. Let the Admiralty look to it that Great Britain is no longer misrepresented. Our interests, both political and commercial, demand that our'strength shall not only be solid, but visible." lbs "Du'ly Telegraph" observes: --"So.n. fj.v carping spirits have suggested that this welcome to American ships might prove distasteful, or even be a sign of disloyalty, to the Mother Country. Certainly there is no such fear at home, and our own feeling is rather one of envy of our colonial fellow subjects that they have the first opportunity of showing the welcome, which we should be glad of displaying with no less warmth. It is just because it is inconceivable to us that America's great fleet could ever be anything else than friendly to us, that we prefer to wait until they pass through the Mediterranean to give them the full greeting from a British fleet of ironclads, which there awaits them."

The "Pall Mall" Gazette" observes:—"Oratory on the occasion of international meetings is always rather delicate in these days, and the Pacific is no exception to the rule. The safest principle, probably, ia to say nothing in particular, and say it very well. The Governor and Prime Minister of New Zealand and the United States Admiral have done this to perfection. There is no word in any of the speeches that could possibly cause the slightest uneasiness to anybody in any country. The establishment of that special and unique amity, which ought to, and now does, prevail between the Eng-lish-speaking nations, may be in- < valuable for some of the world problems of the time to come, and is undoubtedly of immense value already as a contribution to the world's peace and sense of security. Put it suffices to' accept it explicitly as a most welcome condition purely for its own sake; and that is what the speakers at Auckland have done very admirably." The "St. James' Gazette" üb-, serves: —"There is no blinking the fact that New Zealanders regard the Anglo-Japanese Alliance with feelings very different from those prevailing in the Mother Country. Determined as they are to keep their islands "white," to which and a poll tax of £IOO is put upon every Japanese immigrant, they fear that with the growth of its population, its commerce, and—we may also add of its ambition, Nippon may demand an open door into New Zealand, and that the alliance may prevent Great Britain from making an effective protest. It is possible, their fears are unfounded. The Japanese know they are not wanted in Australasia and at present, at all events, they don't attempt to press in. Nor would it be a good policy on their part to do so,'as the Empire is \y far the best customer Japan possesses, and any quarrel would seriously damage her commerce. She seems to have recognised this in the difficult negotiations with Canada over the influx of coolies into British Columbia."