The Hawaiian Gazette, Oahu, HI, January 24, 1908
It is reported that the authorities are “greatly puzzled” at the warlike activity of Japan as shown in the creation of a fortified naval base in Formosa, within two days steaming of the Philippines. As the news goes, “great guns are being mounted; ammunition magazines of enormous capacity filled to overflowing; thousands of tons of coal are being stored with the requisite lighters for hauling it alongside warships in attendance, great commissariat stores are being rushed there, and a garrison of unusual size is being assembled.”
It is added further that thousands of soldiers are being conveyed to Formosa in transports, that the commissariat supplies there or en route would call for a great army and that the ammunition supplies would do for both an army and a navy.
But, look at the other side! For a year past the United States has been rushing troops, ammunition, big guns, commissariat supplies and the like to Luzon, within two days’ steaming of Formosa; and planning to build a fortified naval base at Subig Bay. Almost the entire battleship strength of the navy is en route to the Pacific ocean. That being the case Japan is right, from a precautionary point of view, to make her defences good at the point nearest the alien base where American war preparations are going on. And she has the same right to call those preparations defensive that the Americans in the Philippines have to call theirs defensive.