Count von Arco-Valley to Mr. Blaine.
Washington , June 29, 1889.
The Imperial German envoy has the honor, in pursuance of instructions received from his Government, most respectfully to inform the honorable Secretary of State of the United States that, in the three original copies of the Samoan protocol which were signed on the 14th instant by the plenipotentiaries to the conference, the fourth sentence (paragraph?) of section 2, Article V, beginning with the words: “It shall be the duty of the consular representatives of the three treaty powers,” was, by a mistake of the printer, repeated, and that the Imperial Government, after confidentially consulting the delgates of the United States and England, proposes that, when the Samoa protocol is published and ratified, the repetition of the said fourth sentence be omitted.
The imperial envoy, begging the honorable Secretary of State to be pleased to reply to this communication, avails, etc.,