Page 62 - The Interest of America in Sea Power Present and Future

Hawaii and our Future Sea Power. 43

the northeast toward the American continent
Within the circle a few scattered islets, bare
and unimportant, seem only to emphasize the
failure of nature to bridge the interval sepa-
rating Hawaii from her peers of the Southern

Pacific. Of these, however, it may be noted
that some, like Fanning and Christmas Islands,
have within a few years been taken into Brit-
ish possession. The distance from San Fran-
cisco to Honolulu, twenty-one hundred miles
— easy steaming distance — is substantially
the same as that from Honolulu to the Gilbert,
Marshall, Samoan, Society, and Marquesas
groups, all under European control, except
Samoa, in which we have a part influence.
To have a central position such as this, and
to be alone, having no rival and admitting no
alternative throughout an extensive tract, are
conditions that at once fix the attention of
the strategist, — it maybe added, of the states-
men of commerce likewise. But to this strik-
ing combination are to be added the remarkable
relations, borne by these singularly placed
islands, to the greater commercial routes trav-
ersing this vast expanse known to us as the
Pacific, — not only, however, to those now