THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 1910. "FIRE FIRST AND EXPLAIN AFTERWARDS."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10065, 10 June 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 1910. "FIRE FIRST AND EXPLAIN AFTERWARDS."

• The revolution in Nicaragua, which has produced some heavy fighting, and much loa3 of life, between the ! forces of the Nicaraguan Government . and the (roopa of the insurgents near ' Bluefields, has also had the effect of attracting the attention of the , United States Government, which ! has not only interfered through its Secretary of State, Mr P. C. Knox, to obtain justice lor one of its captured subjects, but has despatched a small naval force to the Gulf of Mexico, with instructions to keep ordsr at Bluefields. The United States naval officer has also been instructed to prevent the Nicaraguan gunboat from exercising the rifrh!" of search o* United States shipping. The temper of the Washington Government is sufficiently ! indicated by its reported instruction fo its naval representative tn "fire first and explain alterwards." Confident in t*ie possession of its naval j "big stick," the Washington Government evidently has no intention j of parleying with the Nicaraguans j about the fine points of international law. It would not be a great surprise if some day the Washington Government announced that in the interests of order it intended to an- ; nex Nicaragua—as it has already virtually annexed Panaira, by euar- j anteeing the independence of that > little Republic after it had separated j it3elf from Columbia'. Owing to geographical proximity and i.'s paramount interests in that region, the United States must tend,, in the j opinion of many American thinkers,, 1 to be drawn more: and more into

definite action in Central America. Meanwhile, further trouble is constantly brewing, between Peru and its'noithern neighbour, Ecuador, over a frontier dispute, which has besn going on for years. Ecuador settled its dispute with Columbia, but though the mediation of the United States, j Brazil and Argentine has been tenta- ' tively accepted as between Ecuador and Peru, it would appear that the negotiations have broken down, for both Republics ara hurriedly arming, and it may be that war i 3 inevitable. Pc'ru possessea a couple of up-to-date ! 3,500-ton crmsers, a3 well as a few j gunboats, while ihe Ecuadorian navy j consists of one torpedo launch and i one transport, so that in the event of I war Guayaquil, the chief port of I Ecuador, may be aeverely handled. I Frontier wars between South AmeriI ca?i Republics have heen much rarer of late than formerly. Peru has had a disastrous experience of them, and hss lost a good deal of her territory to Chile i» the past. The fewer fron- . tier wars ihere are in that region of I the world the less likelihood will : tl'.ere be of intervention by the I United States, which may find a i valuable opportunity of improving : its p:s>tian i! tUo short-sighted Re- ! publics do not cease from quarrelling among themselves.