THE AMERICAN NAVY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9689, 13 January 1910, Page 4

THE AMERICAN NAVY.

The anouncemenfc that the United States Government intends in future to mantain a fleet in Asiatic waters, as well as a squadron on the Pacific coast, apparently heralds the return to the Philippines of part at any rate of the battleship fleet which visited Australasia in 1908. It was reported some weeks ago that the battleships were about to make another cruise to Far Eastern waters,, though Australasian ports are not included this time in the itinery. When the American fleet was in New Zealand the belief was widely held, even among the officers } that the ships woul<J remain in the Par East, and though that belief was not borne

out literally the deductions which j prompted it were evidently sound. To the naval mind it appeared impos-. sible that such a far-flung outpost as the Philippines should I o left permanently without the support of United States battleships. And that is the view which is now taken by the Washington Government. Many Republicans as well as most Democrats consider that the Government of the day made a serious mistake in retaining possession of the Philip- \ pines at th? close of the SpanishAmerican war. The insalubrious islands have already taken a heavy toll of American blood and American treasure, and in spite of all the energy of Mr Tait, who was the first commissioner in charge of the administration of the Philippines, tacked up by many regiments of American troops, who were engaged for years in attempting to civilise the recalcitrant Filipinos by drastic military methods, the results are hardly more than negative. Yet the . Washington Government now finds it necessary to keep a fleet permanently in, Asiatic*waters—in other words, to keep it for the protection of tne Philippines and of the Eastern trade, decision marks a new stage in the history which is a big and growing one. The story of American oversea expansion. With a fleet to protect its trans-Pacific dependency, the United States now comes into line with the other colonising nations of the world, and one side of Munroeism is apparently gone for ever. The other side, namely, that part of the doctrine which prohibits any further acquisition of territory on either of the American continents by any European Power, still remains. The people of Australasia will be well pleaed at the determination of the Washington Government to maintain battleships at the Philippines. The Philippines are one of the stepping-stones between Eastern asia and Northern Australia, and the presence of a fleet of battleships manned by white men of a friendly nation, in the fair way, is cheering and comforting. The new departure must portend a heavy increase in the naval strength of the United States, seeing that the need of the Atlantic coast for adequate defence increases with, each fresh development in Europe.