Baron Ketteler to Mr. Foster.
Washington, November 12, 1892.
Mr. Secretary of State: The secretary of state for foreign affairs has seen, by your note of September 27, 1892, relative to fees for the registration of titles to land in Samoa, which I did not fail duly to transmit to him, that the U. S. Government also is prepared to refuse its recognition of the establishment of a fee of $5 for the registration for every title to land in Samoa. The view expressed in the note of your Department of September 27, 1892, that the collection of a fee by way of compensation for the expenses incurred by the supreme court for copying, etc., would be proper, is accepted by the Imperial Government, which consequently intends to instruct the imperial consul at Apia in this sense, assuming that the U. S. Government will similarly instruct its representative, to the end that the chief justice may be apprised by a collective note of the consuls that the fee established by him in the real-property ordinance ($5) is not recognized by the treaty powers as legal.
Hoping to receive a favorable reply on this subject from your Department, I avail myself of this Occasion to’ renew to you, Mr. Secretary, etc.,