Mr. Foster to Mr. White.
Washington, November 5, 1892.
Sir: The United States commercial agent at Butaritari, in the Gilbert Islands, reports to this Department that on the 11th of June last Her Majesty’s ship Royalist, commanded by Capt. E. H. M. Davis, Royal Navy, arrived at that port, and on the same day hoisted the British flag and declared the island to be under Her Majesty’s protection. The other islands of the Gilbert group had also thus been previously visited and similarly declared under British protection.
This proceeding was marked by certain acts on the part of Capt. Davis in contrast with the conduct of other agents of foreign governments when declaring under foreign protection islands and territories where the Government of the United States maintained a representative [Page 238] accredited to the local authority; and in the interest of good feeling it becomes necessary to invite the attention of Her Majesty’s Government to such conduct with a view to a friendly understanding.
Citizens of the United States have during the last fifty years established themselves in several of the islands of the Gilbert group. Acquiring property and vested interests therein, they have won the confidence and esteem of the natives by their examplary dealings and by their self-sacrificing labors as missionaries; and, supported by the benevolent contributions of the Christian churches of the United States, they have raised that remote island community to a stage of civilized order alike notable and commendable.
These interests, thus firmly established, called for due recognition and protection on the part of the United States Government, and on the 25th of May, 1888, Adolph Rick was duly commissioned as commercial agent of the United States for the Gilbert Islands, with residence at Butaritari.
Capt. Davis appears to have supposed, contrary to the usage which this Government has observed on other occasions and in other quarters, that the acceptance by Her Majesty of a protectorate over the local rulers of those islands annulled the relations of other governments thereto; and he appears to have treated the United States commercial agency as nonexistent from the 27th of May, 1892, when his proclamation of assumption of British protection over the Gilbert Islands was issued at Apamama, fifteen days before he arrived at Butaritari on the 11th of June. Mr. Rick was not lacking in courtesy to Capt. Davis, and on the next day, June 12, sought an introduction to him through a reputable resident of Butaritari, Mr. J. F. Luttrell, but Capt. Davis took no notice of the introduction although Mr. Rick’s name and office were distinctly announced, and turned abruptly away. Owing to this misunderstanding, Mr. Rick and Capt. Davis did not meet until July 6, when the captain informed him orally that he could not recognize him as a consular representative until he should be accredited to Her Majesty the Queen; a statement repeated the next day in writing.
Availing himself of the usual courtesy of forwarding home-bound mails by returning war vessels, Mr. Rick, on Friday, July 8, tendered to Capt. Davis several sealed letters and, in particular, official dispatches to the Department of State, inclosed in the prescribed printed envelope supplied to consular officers for their business correspondence. Capt. Davis demanded that the printed heading, “United States Consulate, Butaritari,” should be erased, claiming that its appearance there was “not courteous” on the commercial agent’s part. He, however, accepted the letters the next day, without erasure. The correspondence on the subject between Mr. Rick and Capt. Davis is inclosed.
The trivial character of this incident makes it unworthy of notice, save as an indication of the temper in which Capt. Davis appears to have executed the high mission confided to him. It can not for an instant be supposed that Her Majesty’s Government could have intended to give a naval commander the function of censorship over the official correspondence of an officer of a friendly power with the government he serves. In regard to this whole proceeding I quite fail to share Capt. Davis’s views as to what constitutes discourtesy.
Neither is it readily supposable that Capt. Davis’s powers included the abrupt rupture and outlawry of the relations maintained by the United States Government with the Gilbert Islanders through its deputed agent. Had the islands been annexed by Great Britain as conquered [Page 239] territory, the sudden breaking off of the representative functions of the agent of a friendly state might perhaps have found excuse as an act of military necessity; but in the present case it wears an unfriendly aspect, which I am confident Her Majesty’s Government will hasten to disavow.
In the course of the last few years foreign protectorates have been asserted over territories where this Government had established consular representation, without interruption thereof, until a new appointment required a new act of recognition. Were the British protectorate over the Gilbert Islands deemed to be of a different character, involving the sub statutory credence of the United States commercial agent forthwith to Her Britannic Majesty, this Government would have cheerfully considered the point on due intimation being given by Her Majesty’s Government through the regular channels. I am unable to accept the action of Capt. Davis as such usual, timely, and friendly notice as is due from one power to another, nor can I suppose Her Majesty’s Government desires or expects that it should be so accepted.
An important fact remains and should not be dwarfed by the petty details which, to my great regret, encumber this dispatch.
As I have already said, the germs of civilization were planted in the Gilbert group by the zealous endeavor of American citizens more than half a century ago. The result of this work, carried on by American citizens and money, has been, in fact, to change the naked barbarism of the island natives into enlightened communities and to lay the foundations of the trade and commerce which have given those islands importance in the eyes of Europe to-day. Wrought by the agents of a colonizing power, this development would have naturally led to a paramount claim to protection, control, or annexation, as policy might dictate. This country, however, has slept upon its rights to reap the benefits of the development produced by the efforts of its citizens; but it can not forego its inalienable privilege to protect its citizens in the vested rights they have built up by half a century of sacrifice and Christian endeavor.
I feel certain that no country will more readily acknowledge our rights in this regard than England, which has so largely shared with the United States in the work of carrying progress and civilization to the islands of the Pacific.
You will take an early occasion to make these views known to the Earl of Rosebery. You will say to him that this Government believes that it has a right to expect that the rights and interests of the American citizens established in the Gilbert Islands will be as fully respected and confirmed under Her Majesty’s protectorate as they could have been had the United States accepted the office of protection not long since solicited by the rulers of those Islands. You will point out to his lordship the expediency and, indeed, in view of the strange conduct of Capt. Davis, the necessity of continuing the consular representation of the United States in that quarter under such superior sanction as Her Majesty’s Government may deem fitting by reason of the function of protection which it has assumed.
It is to be noted that the representation of the United States in the Gilbert Islands takes the form of a commercial agency, an office already established at many points in Her Majesty’s dominions.
I am, etc.,