OCR Text |
Show DUTCH WEST INDIES.. In their anxiety to obtain the Danish West Indies the senate, of the United States should not forget the Butch West Indies. Naval strategists tell us that the Dutch West Indies, which are off the coast of Venezuela, would give a ! foreign power a strategic base from which tho Atlantic entrance of the Panama canal could be attacked. Germany Ger-many has long wanted these islands and her admiralty experts are said to regard them more highly for the navy 's purposes pur-poses qu this side of the world than the Danish West Indies. There are six islands in the Dutch West Indies. Tho largest are Curacoa. Aruba and Buen A-re. They are 710 miles from the Panama canal and, therefore, there-fore, several hundred miles nearer than our naval base at Guantauamo. In her present financial and economic straits Holland probably would Vot be averse to an offer from the Tin i ted States, especially if the offer were of the liberal kind that induces Denmark to part with her islands. Moreover, the baud of German intimidation is no longer held menacingly aloft, or, if it is. the Dutch are not frightened. Presumably Pre-sumably the Dutch are not only in a financial but in a mental state that will prompt them to give any offer of purchase pur-chase from this country benevolent consideration. |