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REViLW OF REVIEWS. 



Fear of the Unknown Quantity. 



The fear of Japan i;^ by no means 

 confined to Australia. It is strong in 

 Canada, in the United States, in the 

 RepubHcs of South America. It is the 

 fear of the unknown quantity. Japan 

 lias spruni^ suddenly from nothing into 

 the first rank of great Powers. China 

 can still be coerced by the European 

 nations, Japan must be treated as one 

 of themselves. But, in winning her 

 way to a place in the ranks of the great 

 Powers, Japan has impoverished her- 

 self. Her statesmen are bound to shun 

 expansion b>" conquest, and are forced 

 to work rather for new avenues of 

 trade than for the acquisition of new 

 territory. The present trouble with the 

 United States is not over the right of 

 Japanese to enter California — that im- 

 migration has been stopped long ago — 

 but is because the recent legislation 

 with regard to " Mongolians " chal- 

 lenges Japan's position as a first-class 

 Power. Tlie menace of Japan is not to 

 be feared in Canada, the United States 

 or Australasia. Japan is far more 

 likely to covet those lands adjacent to 

 her at present in the hands of Euro- 

 peans. The United States in the Philip- 

 pines, the Dutch in the East Indies, the 

 French in Cochin China. The Dutch ap- 

 pear to realise this, and tlie Royal Com- 

 mission appointed to inquire into the 

 defence of their possessions in the East 

 recommends the construction of no less 

 than nine dreadnoughts and many de- 

 stroyers and submarines. 



An English-Speaking Alliance. 



-Supposing, though, that all this is 

 wrong, and that Japan, as many Aus- 

 tralians think, is only waiting a favour- 

 able opportunit}' to pounce upon our 

 vast unoccupied territories; or, as is 

 thought in Canada, is but longing for 

 some European complication which will 

 give her a chance to force her wa}' into 



the Dominion ; or, hopes, by force of 

 arms, to compel the United States to 

 permit her subjects to live and multiply 

 beneath the Stars and Stripes, as is be- 

 lieved in America. Assuming that this 

 is so, surely the obvious thing to do is 

 for the English-speaking nations to 

 have an alliance which would mean the 

 control of the Pacific. They and the 

 Japanese are the most vitally interested 

 in its future. With Great Britain, the 

 United States, Australia, New Zealand 

 and Canada in agreement wdth regard 

 to joint action in case of need, there 

 would be no cause for dreaming o' 

 nights of the tramping legions which 

 ma}' invade our fair land. Ultimate 

 union of the English-speaking world 

 must some day come about. It is a 

 natural thing for it to start in the 

 Pacific. Actually, the power of the 

 Japanese fleet should not be measured 

 b}- the number of dreadnoughts flying 

 the flag of the rising sun. Several of 

 these — for purposes of economy — have 

 been built in Japan, and the stories 

 about the troubles their crews have ex- 

 perienced with them are pretty well 

 authenticated. 



A Hundred Years of Peace. 



The British Committee for celebrat- 

 ing the looth anniversary of Peace 

 among English-speaking peoples, pro- 

 poses that an American memorial shall 

 be erected in Westminster Abbey, that 

 Sulgrave Manor, the ancestral home of 

 che Washington family, shall be pur- 

 chased, and maintained as a place of 

 ]>ilgrimage for Americans visiting Eng- 

 land, and that a permanent Chair of 

 Anglo-American History shall be 

 founded. It will cost some ;£^6o,ooo to 

 carry out this programme, and it is to 

 be hoped that the amount will be raised 

 before the centenary celebrations take 

 place. Obvioush' the proper Memorial 

 in the Abbev should be a statue of 



