t an island empire can only maintain its
position by possessing an overpowering naval force. As I have said
before, I am fully convinced of the fact that in the development of
her Navy, as of her Army, Japan has no aggressive designs. Her
aspiration is the security and prevention from invasion of her island
and the preservation of her national independence. At the same time,
situated as she is in the great Pacific Ocean, she has palpably, from
her position, rights and responsibilities and duties outside the
immediate confines of her Empire. That, I think, will be admitted by
any one. The phrase, "spheres of influence" has become somewhat
hackneyed of recent years, and it has occasionally been used to give
colour to aggressive designs. There may, too, be people who would say
that spheres of influence is not a term that can properly be applied
to a great water-way such as the Pacific. I am not, however, on the
present occasion arguing with pedants. What I desire is to broadly
emphasise the fact that in the future of the Pacific--those
innumerable isles dotted here and there over its surface, Japan is a
factor that cannot be left out of account. Year by year her position
there is increasing in importance. Steamers ply to her ports weekly
from Vancouver and San Francisco. The Japanese population are
emigrating to the Pacific shores of America, the trade and commerce of
Japan with the American Continent are growing and broadening.
Everything in fact tends to show that within a comparatively short
space of time Japan will have asserted her position, not only as a
Great World Power, but as a great commercial nation in the Pacific.
What is to be the outcome of it all? is the question that will
naturally arise to the mind. I think that one outcome of it will be,
as I have shown, the capture by Japan of the Chinese trade, if not in
its entirety, at any rate in a very large degree. Another outcome
will, I believe, be the enormous development of Japanese trade with
both the United States and Canada. Some people may remark that these
are not essentially political matters, and that I am somewhat
wandering from my point in treating of them in connection with the
influence of Japan upon the world generally. I do not think so. A
nation may assert its influence and emphasise its importance to just
as great an extent by its trade as by the double-dealings of diplomacy
or by other equally questionable methods. Of one thing I am convinced,