Page 63 - The Interest of America in Sea Power Present and Future

44 Hawaii and our Future Sea Power.

actually in use, important as they are, but also
to those that must be called into being neces-
sarily by that future to which the Hawaiian
incident compels our too unwilling attention.
Circumstances, as already remarked, create cen-
tres, between which communication necessarily
follows; and in the vista of the future all dis-
cern, however dimly, a new and great centre that
must largely modify existing sea routes, as well
as bring new ones into existence. Whether
the canal of the Central American isthmus be
eventually at Panama or at Nicaragua matters
little to the question now in hand, although,
in common with most Americans who have
thought upon the subject, I believe it surely will
be at the latter point. Whichever it be, the
convergence there of so many ships from the
Atlantic and the Pacific will constitute a cen-
tre of commerce, interoceanic, and inferior to
few, if to any, in the world ; one whose
approaches will be watched jealously, and whose
relations to the other centres of the Pacific by
the lines joining it to them must be examined
carefully. Such study of the commercial routes
and of their relations to the Hawaiian Islands,
taken together with the other strategic con-