Viewing page 20 of 203

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

menaced only from across the Pacific, while in the west we find an insular empire occupying a base a little more than one-half of the length of one side of the triangle and menaced strategically both from the Pacific and the continent of Asia.
Surveying the base of the triangle of the line Panama-Manila we find first an expanse of 5000 miles of ocean to the Kingman Reef, owned by the United States, but, from there on, a practically continuous series of islands within short distance of each other, clear to the coast of Asia. These islands are either in the possession of or entirely dominated by Great Britain. The only land encountered between Panama and the Kingman Reef is Clipperton Island, about 1900 miles west of Panama and claimed both by France and the Republic of Mexico. (The United States should aquire this at once.) Roughly, then, England, through her foothold on these islands, combined with her air and sea power, should be able to control about one-half of the base of the triangle. This, in turn, joined up to her base, Singapore-New Zealand,