Lord Roberts on New Strategical Conditions.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue XXIV, 11 June 1904, Page 22

Lord Roberts on New Strategical Conditions.

A lecture on *• The ‘ New Pacific ’ from a Strategic Point of View ” was delivered recently at the Royal United Service Institution, London, by Dr. T. Miller Maguire, Lord Roberts presided. The lecturer explained by means of mops the strategic position of the British Empire, insisting on the necessity for a thorough appreciation of the conditions of the Imperial defence, and of the resources of States like Russia, Germany, France, Japan, and the L nited States. He spoke of the indif-

ference of Japan to sea power till awakened by bombardments in 1864, and said that sea power might lost part of its significance by railway power. Nevertheless, command of the sea. with power to employ efficient expeditions, was at present the supreme condition of international power. He quoted Seward’s saying in 1863 that “ The Pacific Ocean, with its coasts and islands, is destined to be the great theatre of the world's affairs.” Napoleon’s theory that tiie future would be with America and Asia had been verified. Lord Roberts, at the conclusion of the lecture, said: I have listened, as I am sure all present here have listened, with the greatest interest to the lecture which has just been delivered. It was most interesting and instructive. Dr. Maguire has taken us over a vast expanse of country, and most valuable lessons are taught by his lecture. Time will not admit of my alluding to some of the many interesting points he has brought forward, but there is one point to which I would especially invite your attention—namely, that it is to the'Pacific that the centre of international gravity has now shifted, and it is mainly, in that direction that the dominating factors will be found when any seriious future complications arise. In his lecture Dr. Maguire has very graphically explained to us how some of the causes of this change have been quite phenomenal. If we look first to the western shore of the Pacific, to which our attention is now more immediately directed, we find in Japan perhaps the most wonderful instance of a national new birth which history has recorded. Less than 40 years ago this comparatively small island was scarcely in touch with the outer world, and, strategically speaking, was a negligible quantity. To-day Japan is a nation whose alliance we are proud to possess, and who esteemed itself powerful enough to enter single-handed into a contest with the European Power which lias the strongest army iu the whole world, and the bravery of whose soldiers is only to be equalled by their hardiness. Then, if we take Japan's great adversary, Russia, we find that about the same time, forty years ago, Russia’s possessions in the

Far East were absolutely undeveloped. Within the last few years- those possessions have been brought into direct communication with St. Petersburg by a railway close upon <KKK> miles in length, and vast sums have been spent in garrisoning and fortifying the harbours which that railway feeds, in order to make use of them as bases for the very considerable fleet which Russia lias thought proper to place in the western sea of the Pacific. Other nations have not kept aloof from that region. France has possessed herself of the territory now known as In-do-Cbina, Great Britain has acquired. Hong kong and Wei-hai-wei, and Germany Kiao-chau. Further south we come to Australia. la-ss than 100 years ago Australia was considered an almost waterless waste, a fit place for a settlement of convicts. Now it is a flourishing continent, the colonies of which four years ago nobly came to the aid of the Mother Country in her hour o£ need. If we cross over to the eastern waters of the Pacific, we find precisely the same extraordinary development and progress, which also changes the old strategical conditions, whether in Columbia, with its potentialities of great wealth, in the mines of Alaska, or In the United States port of San Francisco; and to show the great importance of tliePacific, it is, as I daresay you know, connected with the Atlantic by no fewer than nine lines of direct railway communication. I believe a tenth is under consideration. But, valuable and important as these railways are from a strategical point of view, they will be surpassed when the canal is made in the Isthmus of Panama. That will indeed be a change of strategic conditions. If any further proof is required of the importance of the Paciliee, I would call your attention to the fact that within the last two years two submarine cables have been laid from one shore to the other—the all-Englaml cable from Vancouver to Australia and the United States cable from San Francisco to Manila. These are strategic matters, and no doubt they will be made more valuable by other cables being laid. These cables, owing to their connexion with land telegraphs and other submarine eaoles, have given the final link to the telegraphic girdle round the whole world. That is an important strategical condition of affairs which I think Dr Maguire has enabled us to appreciate by his very valuable lecture.