The Importance of Guam The urgent demand of the United
States Navy Board for the fortification of the Pacific island of Guam recalls one of the keenest controversies aroused during the Washington Naval Conference in 1921-2. Guam, which the United States acquired in 1898, after the Spanish War, lies some I,400 miles east of the Philippines, and near enough to Japan to enable an American battle-fleet based on it to attack the Japanese in their own waters. Conscious of that, and realising that she was safe so long as the nearest American base was Hawaii, more than 3,000 miles away, Japan accepted the treaty on naval limitation only on condition that an article was included prohibiting any signatory from fortifying new bases in the Pacific. That made Guam strategically useless to the United' States, but since Japan's denunciation of the treaty (in order to allow her to build larger battleships) America is released from its provisions, and Guam can be fortified. The reasons for taking such a step are obvious. Without it the Philippine Islands could not be protected, and though the Philippines were held to be in no danger in 1922 no one would take that view of them today. The United States, moreover, has no intention of disinteresting herself in China, and if she is to have any influence in the Far East she must be in a position to make her power felt there. Without a base at Guam she can cause Japan little anxiety; with it site can create just the situation the Japanese feared in 1922.
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