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THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1909. AMERICA AND THE "OPEN DOOR" POLICY.

National trading operations are the last direction in which to look for a display of altruism, for, in international rivalry, as in individual competition, the weakest goes to the wall. A t the same time, in the interests of peace and civilisation, national trading is supposed to avoid an utterly rapacious policy, and the news that the United States proposes the "closed-door" policy in the Philippines comes with a shock ,to those who applauded the substitution of American for Spanish rule as a distinct advance in the direction of liberty and progress. Recalling the fact that British sympathy was with the United States in its acquisition of the Philippines, there is not lacking an element of the ironic in the circumstance that the new policy forecasted from Washington will administer a smashnig blow to British trade there. This has naturally created intense indignation in England. In Manila British firms figure prominently, and British subjects are the leading importers and exporters, bankers, and railway stock holders, as Wfill as being the backers of many other enterpriser The indignation aroused by the proposals of the Washington Government is accentuated by the fact that, in 1899, the United States gave specific assurances that no changes would be made which would injure old-established British commerce. This undertaking has already been violated in connection with the trade in hemp—a commodity for the production of which the Philippines is famed, for there is hardly a corner of the world where Mamie cordage is unknown. On this product an export duty was recently imposed, but full rebate was given on all hemp nent to America. "Till then," we read, "London was the centre of the hemp trade." When the United States took the Philippines British trade was already established therein, and the measures proposed from Washington thus amount t<> a deliberate attack on British trade. The example set by the United States is a bad one, for other Powers may be tempted to follow it. That the United States intends to oust all competitors from the Philippines is proved beyond!

doubt if the statement of the London "Daily Mail" is true, that all trade between America and the Philippines is to be "coastal," and that none but ships of American registry shall be allowed to share in that trade. Here again the blow is at Great Britain, whose ships have been largely concerned in the commerce of the Philippines. It is grotesque beyond measure to describe this trade as "coastal." The Philippines are not even islands of the American continent, but Asiatic islands, and a wide ocean

separates them from the United States. However, the term "coastal" is apparently sufficiently elastic to stretch as far as the Stars and Stripes extend. The blow thus delivered at British shipping will be a severe one, entirely unprovoked and quite unjustifiable. How widely different is the spirit displayed by Great Britain towards America is illustrated by the revelation made the other day that the War Office obtains the bulk of its preserved meats from American firms, even to the exclusion of the Australian tenderer. It would not be fair to assume that the new trade restrictions are directed against England as England. They affect

other nations trading in the Philippines in the same way, if not to the same extent. Great Britain is the chief sufferer, because she is the chief trader. At the same time America's action is not friendly, nor is it in harmony with the enlightened policy which should characterise a great Power. To seize territory by acts of war, and then proceed to shut out a friendly Power long commercially domiciled there is a policy which will not commend itself to the judgment of history; and it is a striking illustration of the fluctuations of policy in the great Republic that it should have made its first dramatic appearance In Asiatic waters as the forcible opponent of that "closed door" of which it is now to be the chief exponent in the same seas. Even r more inconsistent are the striking national inequalities and unfair restrictions thus set up by a nation, which, in Lincoln's words, is "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." In the matter of Philippine trade, at least, the •quality fails to manifest itself.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAG19090430.2.9

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3177, 30 April 1909, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
730

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1909. AMERICA AND THE "OPEN DOOR" POLICY. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3177, 30 April 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1909. AMERICA AND THE "OPEN DOOR" POLICY. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3177, 30 April 1909, Page 4

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