Page 280 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

A Twentieth-Century Outlook. 261

system of American states enjoying that civili-
zation as in no other way they can be bound.
In the Caribbean Archipelago— the very do-
main of sea power, if ever region could be
called so — are the natural home and centre of
those influences by which such a maritime
highway as a canal must be controlled, even as
the control of the Suez Canal rests in the
Mediterranean. Hawaii, too, is an outpost of
the canal, as surely as Aden or Malta is of
Suez; or as Malta was of India in the days
long before the canal, when Nelson proclaimed
that in that point of view chiefly was it impor-
tant to Great Britain. In the cluster of island
fortresses of the Caribbean is one of the great-
est of the nerve centres of the whole body of
European civilization; and it is to be regretted
that so serious a portion of them now is in

hands which not only never have given, but to
all appearances never can give, the development
which is required by the general interest.
For what awaits us in the future, in common
with the states of Europe, is not a mere ques-
tion of advantage or disadvantage— of more
or less. Issues of vital moment are involved.
A present generation is trustee for its succes-