G. R. Parkin

“ While the rapid growth of the United States, during the last half-century particularly, has made Canada's relative position appear comparatively unimportant, it seems likely that the next half-century may make the disparity less striking. Sir Wilfrid Laurier's picturesque saying that 'the nineteenth century was for the United States; the twentieth is for Canada,' is not exaggerated if we refer it to the rapid filling up of virgin territory and the speedy development of untouched resources. Canada must make her plans for a large future, and that as a Pacific Power. ”

“ A country which links by its railway lines the naval bases of the Empire on the Atlantic with those on the Pacific; which can furnish abundant supplies of coal to both; and which has at the same time the capacity to make the Empire almost self-contained in the most essential elements of food-supply, means much to an ocean Power which must settle the balance of naval influence on the two great oceans. It infinitely increases the value to any other Power of the British alliance. ”

“ If penny postage round the Empire—if the sixpenny telegram rate throughout the United Kingdom—have come to be regarded as boons of the first magnitude, then surely the cheapest possible rate for cable communication with every part of the Empire is a still greater boon to which we should look forward! It is one to which we have a right to look forward. The lowering of postage rates has always been followed by an immense increase in the volume of business done, and hence in the profits derived from the Post-Office. ”

“ Commencing at the south, we have on the Pacific the great and growing British communities of New Zealand and Australia, splendidly equipped with docks and fortified harbours, and rich in coal. Farther north are Singapore and Hong Kong, also under the British Flag, in positions which give extraordinary command of the neighbouring seas. After that the Philippines, now a dependency of the United States. China might be important, but she lacks the naval power which gives effective influence on the sea. Next is Japan, the ally of Britain. ”

“ The Canadian Pacific Railway, in the early days of its history, secured a large portion of the tea trade of China with America as the result of superior steamboat and railway organization. New lines across Canada will enter into free competition for the same expanding trade and other branches of commerce. The open door in China is of the deepest interest to Canadians. Friendly rivalry with Japan may prove the best of stimulants to Canadian energy. ”

“ The timber and coal of British Columbia find their way along the whole coast of North, Central, and South America. A line of steamships is employed in the business that has grown up with Australia. Canada's exchange of agricultural implements and other manufactures for the sugar of Queensland and Fiji is sure to develop on many lines. An improved passenger service on this route, equal to that between Vancouver and Japan, would compete successfully with the Suez Canal lines for a large share of Australasian travel to or from Europe. ”

“ Across the whole breadth of the continent means of communication are multiplying with a rapidity which seems astonishing to those who watched the beginnings of the movement thirty years ago. The Canadian Pacific Railway already crosses the country from sea to sea; a second one, the Grand Trunk Pacific, by a more northern route, is in course of construction, backed up by all the resources of a prosperous people ”

“ The frontage on the Pacific is not less significant in view of the general expectation that this ocean is likely soon to be the centre of a vastly increased commerce. Wherever lines of transportation from the prairies may penetrate the Rocky Mountains there can be found, in British Columbia, harbour space for any commerce that may come. Thence is the shortest route to the ports of our ally, Japan, and to what will, we hope, be the open door of China. ”

“ On both sides of the continent, in immediate contact with the sea, are immense deposits of coal, furnishing extraordinary facilities for transportation by sea and land. It may be doubted if any coal-supplies in the world are so admirably situated for the prosecution or defence of commerce as those of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia on the Atlantic coast, or those of Vancouver Island on the Pacific. At both points excellent steaming coal can be delivered to waiting steamships almost directly from the mouth of the mine. ”

“ It seems clear that if an understanding can be reached between Britain, the United States, and Japan, the predominance of interest which they represent and the predominance of power with which it can be supported will make conclusive any decisions at which they arrive in order to give security to the Pacific basin. ”

“ That Canada is willing to accept this crucial responsibility proves as conclusively that she begins to realize that partnership in a great Empire involves duties as well as advantages. The sense of duty will grow as Canadians face the problems of the Pacific. They cannot study them too carefully. ”

“ The growth of commercial interests, the interchange of news, the exchange of views between statesmen and governments, the growth of national sentiment founded on intimate mutual understanding, are all hindered by the necessity of paying large dividends on watered stock to companies enjoying in parts of the Empire a practical monopoly of the work to be done. ”

“ Germany, it is true, is in New Guinea and Kiaou Chou, France in Siam and New Caledonia, the Dutch in Java; but their interests are not sufficiently large to enter seriously into the estimate of dominant control. The South American States have no naval significance. ”

“ Making all due allowance for the business energy which established cable communication in its earlier stages, and granting that the reward of this energy should be large, still the question now arises whether the debt of gratitude has not been sufficiently paid, and whether the national necessity does not outweigh the continued claims of the individual or the company. If patent laws fix a limit to the rights of an inventor ”

“ Rome, Carthage, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Genoa, Venice—all in turn felt the influence of this stimulus as Britain feels it now. Canada will do the same. A Northern population, with increasing wealth, will be sure to demand what the East can give—its silken fabrics, porcelain, jewels, and other native manufactures ”

“ Eastward, a great canal system, on which thirty million dollars have been spent, supplements and simplifies the natural lines of water communication, and, as compared with railways, cheapens the transport of grain in bulk. ”