Baron Ketteler to Mr. Foster.
Washington, July 29, 1892.
Mr. Secretary of State: Pursuant to instructions received I have the honor to inclose herewith an extract from a report of May 26, 1892, of the English consul at Apia, which was communicated to the imperial foreign office by the British ambassador at Berlin, by order of his Government, and the contents of which will doubtless be of interest to the Government of the United States.
In the opinion of the English representative the restoration and preservation of a settled state of affairs in Samoa depend essentially on the administration established there, making it its first object to protect and promote the interests of the foreign settlers and merchants: Consul T. B. Cusack-Smith considers it necessary that the two European officials of the Government, the chief justice and the president of the municipal council, should consult with the consuls of the treaty powers more than they have hitherto done, in order to labor more in common for the attainment of that object.
[Page 643]The Imperial Government, which regards this opinion as perfectly correct, has been guided in all its propositions to which events in Samoa have given occasion, by the views upon which that opinion is based. This is especially the case as regards the position taken by the Imperial Government in the question of the apportionment of the customhouse receipts between the municipality and the Samoan Government, to which my memorandum of the 14th instant referred.
On the other hand, the Imperial Government can not avoid noticing that both the chief justice of Samoa and the president of the municipal council do not always, in their measures, pay sufficient consideration to the interest of the white population, but are rather inclined to subordinate those interests to those of the natives. The United States Government has, it is to be presumed, noticed the same facts, and it is, therefore, a question whether it is not expedient first of all to send a communication to the president of the municipal council in the sense of the views advocated in the English consul’s report, and to join that communication to the answer to be given to Freiherr von Senfft’s request to be permitted to resign, to which my note of the 6th instant to you referred.
Remarking that the Imperial Government has addressed a similar inquiry to London, I have the honor to request an expression of your views on the above subjects, and avail myself etc.,