The Coming War in the Pacific
A despatch from The Hague declares that official declaration has been made by the Government of Netherlands that it will be in readiness to receive the delegates to the second Peace Conference about June 1. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES will have two representatives at that conference. In connection with the peace talk, the following words from Hon. Leslie M. Shaw, ex-secretary of the Treasury, before the Worcester, Mass., Board of Trade, May 2, said: "I do not wish to pose as a prophet, but do you suppose that the Pacific will always be a peaceful ocean?" After saying that we have not supplies on the Pacific to last forty-eight hours, he continued, "There are many ships in the merchant service of foreign countries under contract to leave the path of commerce at a moment's notice to enter that of war. We have not one such as these. Some day, so sure as Anglo-Saxon blood runs red, there is to be an awful war. There are two nations that can contest for the Pacific, and this war will be settled at an awful cost." There may, in a short time, be three nations which can contend for the supremacy of the Pacific, and possibly four, Great Britain, America, Japan, China.