UNITED STATES FLEET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3029, 28 October 1908, Page 5

UNITED STATES FLEET.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT . THANKS THE MIKADO. Received October 27, 9 a.m.i NEW YORK, October 26. President Roosevelt thanked the Mikado for the signal generosity, courtesy, and hospitality wherewith the fleet was welcomed, and expressed America's deep appreciation. The visit of the United States fleet to Japan called forth demonstrations, which in view of the serious complications which not long since seemed imminent between the two countries have been little short of remarkable. The way in which Japan has met the situation must be admired. When the fleet set out upon its cruise, and many times since, loose talk has been indulged in about the probabilities of war between America and Japan. That the fleet set out with deliberate hostile intention against Japan was, of course, never credited in any informed ] quarter, but that the fleet, in all its battle strength, was intended to impress Japan there never was any doubt. Two large questions were, and still are, more or less in issue between the two countries. One is the question of Japanese emigration to America. The other has reference to trading rights in Manchuria. In neither are there to be found the elements which make for aiding friendship. But the American fleet entered Japanese waters as an intimation that the representations of the United States in respect to either question, and in respect to the Pacific generally, were to be treated with respect. That, in view of the Californian troubles, and again the China trading trouble, the friendship between the two peoples can hardly be anything more than of the most conventional kind goes almost without saying. But that, despite, these circumstances, the Japanese have turned what might have been an embarrassment into an occasion for international congratulations must be regarded as signal evidence of their genius tor politics on the widest scale.