Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/351

Rh now too important for us to allow any other Power to interfere with it. [The rise of Sabang has brought a new factor on the scene. Formidable rival though it may be to Singapore, whilst it is in the hands of the Dutch we do not need to regard it with anything but friendly interest.] But if the Netherlands once join the German Empire, or are forced to do so—then good-bye to us in the East and to India. However, there is Japan; she cannot hanker after new rivals in the Germans, especially as she would like all these islands herself. There are countless interesting political questions here. Japan, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States have all parts to play, and there is an awakened China to reckon with at some not far distant date. It is the East that is to become the burning question of the world. Though, indeed, there is the Near East as well!

[Let those who should, remember and ponder over the defeat of the Italians by the Abyssinians, and the defeat of the Russians by the Japanese, and realise what it means to all Asiatic or Eastern peoples, and what thoughts it has raised in them. Is there not to be China for the Chinese and India for the Indians? The Western in their eyes is no longer the infallible dominant race, but, they have learnt, can be made to bow before the Eastern. The coming questions in the East, as in the rest of the world, entail unceasing vigil- ance and thought—are they receiving them?

Korea has become an appanage of the Japanese Empire—what next?

At Pearl Harbour, in the track of every line of connection, the Americans are making an impreg- nable fortified harbour. Why? Could no British statesman—or politician—look far enough ahead to see what was coming, what was inevitable