of the Dominion in the Pacific. The safety of commerce will soon become for Canada as important on that ocean as on the Atlantic.
How will it best be secured?
It was openly avowed by the Russian autocracy that 'the command of the Pacific ' was its objective in undertaking the late war. We cannot accept the Russian view, also explicitly stated, that the achievement of this end would have been in the interests of peace, commerce, and civilization. Rather would it have been a disturbing factor and a constant menace to the interests of other nations, notably to those of Britain and her Colonies. Now that the stout resistance of Japan has thwarted this attempt to control the Pacific, the question of who are to be its masters necessarily arises. A glance around the Pacific basin shows the natural answer to this question. Commencing at the south, we have on the Pacific the great and growing British communities of New Zealand and Australia, splendidly equipped with docks and fortified harbours, and rich in coal. Farther north are Singapore and Hong Kong, also under the British Flag, in positions which give extraordinary command of the neighbouring seas. After that the Philippines, now a dependency of the United States. China might be important, but she lacks the naval power which gives effective influence on the sea. Next is Japan, the ally of Britain. Little new territory has been added to the Japanese possessions as the result of the war, but directly or indirectly she will practically dominate the coast northward to the Arctic. Passing to the American continent, we have the United States territory of Alaska. Next comes Canada, with her splendid sea-front, her ports and bases of coal-supply, and behind, her vast inland prairies, seeking through several passes of the Rockies an outlet to the Pacific for their products. After Canada comes the United States, with a sea-front on the Pacific extending from Puget Sound to Mexico, with a rapidly increasing naval power, and with the prospective control of the Panama Canal.
