On Thursday the United States Battleship Fleet arrived at Sydney
and was welcomed by over half a million people on the cliffs and foreshores of the beautiful harbour. Admiral Sperry paid official visits to Lord Northoote, the Governor- General, and to Sir Harry Rawson, the Governor of New South Wales. Lord Northoote gave a dinner in the evening, and the town and harbour were illuminated. There appears to be as much enthusiasm at Sydney as there was at Auckland, but we need not regard seriously the wild com- ments which represent the American Fleet as in some vague sense a weapon to be used in a race conflict between the English-speaking peoples and Asiatics. The only object which we obviously and professedly have in common with the United States in the Pacific, and that we have always, is the preservation of peace. As a confirmation of the remarks we made last week on the proved efficiency of the American Fleet, we are glad to be able to quote from a letter that has just reached us from Honolulu. The writer, describing the visit of the Fleet, says :—"The crowd which turned out at night was surprisingly great, but the pandemonium which I had expected was nowhere, and when one remembers that during the week eleven thousand sailors were let loose in the place, one could only exclaim at the extreme orderliness which obtained from first to last. No rowdyism of any kind occurred, nor even were there any accidents. It really speaks volumes for the Jackie' of the U.S. Navy."
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