AFFAIRS IN THE SAMOAN ISLANDS.'

The PRESIDENT:

Report of the Secretary of State.

Pursuant to your direction, I have the honor to submit herewith the correspondence referred to in the resolution of the Senate of the 6th ultimo, requesting the President, if he should not deem it to be inconsistent with the public interest, to inform the Senate as to the present condition of affairs in the Samoan Islands and to communicate to the Senate copies of any correspondence with the Governments of Great Britain and Germany throwing light upon the same.

A period of almost five years having elapsed since the conclusion of the general act of Berlin, the present occasion is not inappropriate for a review of its results. Such a review, however, would hardly be intelligible without some consideration of the events that preceded the treaty. In order that the subject may be fully comprehended, it will be necessary to present a general survey of our relations to Samoa, both before and since the conclusion of the general act, and to exhibit the policy we have pursued toward the islands, both in respect of its character and its results.

This duty is especially important, since it is in our relations to Samoa that we have made the first departure from our traditional and wellestablished policy of avoiding entangling alliances with foreign powers in relation to objects remote from this hemisphere. Like all other human transactions, the wisdom of that departure must be tested by its fruits. If the departure was justified there must be some evidence of detriment suffered before its adoption, or of advantage since gained, to demonstrate the fact. If no such evidence can be found we are confronted with the serious responsibility of having, without sufficient grounds, imperiled a policy which is not only coeval with our Government, but to which may, in great measure, be ascribed the peace, the prosperity, and the moral influence of the United States. Every nation, and especially every strong nation, must sometimes be conscious of an impulse to rush into difficulties that do not concern it, except in a highly imaginary way. To restrain the indulgence of such a propensity is not only the part of wisdom, but a duty we owe to the world as an example of the strength, the moderation, and the beneficence of popu lar government.

Twenty years ago it may be said that Samoa was, as to the United States, an unknown country. So completely was this the case that in the year 1873 a special agent, named Steinberger, was sent to the islands by the Department of State for the express purpose of obtaining infor mation in regard to their condition. This step seems to have been suggested by certain "higly respectable commercial persons" who

Reprinted from Senate Ex. Doc. No. 93, 53d Cong., 2d sess.; Senate Ex. Doc. No. 132, 53d Cong., 2d sess., and Senate Ex. Doc. No. 97, 53d Cong., 3d sess.

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represented the opportunities of increasing our commercial relations in that quarter of the globe and by the circumstance that in the preceding year a naval officer of the United States, acting on his own responsibility, had entered into an agreement with the great chief of the Bay of Pago Pago whereby the latter, while professing his desire for the friendship and protection of the United States, granted to this Government the exclusive privilege of establishing in that harbor a naval station. In May, 1872, President Grant communicated this agreement to the Senate, saying that he would not hesitate to recommend its approval but for the protection to which it seemed to pledge the United States. It does not appear that the Senate took any action on the agreement.

After Steinberger had returned to the United States and made his report he was sent back to the islands to convey to the chiefs a letter from the President and some presents. Not long afterward strange rumors began to reach the United States from Samoa. Steinberger had set up a government in the group and was administering it, and it was said he had assured the natives that the islands were under the protection of the United States. Moved by these reports, the House of Representatives, on the 28th of March, 1876, adopted a resolution instructing the Committee on Foreign Affairs "to inquire into the extent and character of the power conferred by the United States upon A. B. Steinberger as special agent or commissioner to the Samoan or Navigators Islands," and to call upon the Secretary of State for all correspondence between the said Steinberger and the Department of State touching the object, operation, and result of such mission or agency.

On the 1st of May, 1876, Steinberger's instructions were communicated to the House of Representatives, together with the rest of the correspondence referred to in the resolution. In his general instructions allusion was made to the "commanding and particularly important" position of the Samoa group in the Pacific, but it was said to be "more than doubtful" whether this consideration would be sufficient to satisfy the people of the United States that the annexation of the islands was "essential to our safety and prosperity;" and it was declared to be inexpedient, without a "call from the public," for the Executive to originate a measure which was "adverse to the usual traditions of the Government," and which, therefore, probably would not receive such a sanction as would be likely to secure its success.

There was also a later instruction, specially referring to the report that Steinberger had promised the Samoans the protection of the United States, in which the Secretary of State said:

If this be as represented, it is much to be regretted, as no such promise was made, nor any hope of such protection was held out by warrant of this Government, and such promise, if made, was one which this Department, in the absence of a formal treaty, or of the sanction of Congress, had no right to authorize you to make.

Steinberger did not again officially return to the United States. As ruler of Samoa he fell into difficulties, and, with the concurrence of the American consul, who was in open conflict with him, he was deported on a British man-of-war. On March 18, 1876, the American consul transmitted to the Department of State a copy of what purported to be an agreement between the German house of Godeffroy & Son, of Hamburg, and Steinberger, entered into before the latter's return to Samoa, by which, in consideration of a commission, he engaged to exercise all his influence in Samoa, in any position he might occupy, for the furtherance of the German firm's trade.

Thus closed the first chapter in the history of our relations to Samoa, and of the attempt by such relations to extend our commerce and influence in that quarter of the globe.

In 1877 one Mamea was sent by the chiefs of Samoa to the United States as ambassador to conclude a treaty. In the same year a depu tation of chiefs had proceeded to Fiji and made an unsuccessful application for annexation to Great Britain. The strifes and civil wars that had continuously prevailed in the islands for a number of years had led the people to fancy that they might find repose in annexation or protection by a foreign power. It is well known that Mamea came to the United States with a view to obtain at least the protection of this Government. In this mission he was unsuccessful. No disposition seems to have existed on the part of our Government to assume such a relation. But, if such a disposition had existed, the difficulty previously expressed still remained of satisfying the people of the United States that "their safety and prosperity" required the assumption of control over islands. which where practically unknown to them, which were more than 4,000 miles distant from their shores, and with the possession and control of which their safety and prosperity had not in anywise been connected. On January 16, 1878, there was concluded at Washington the treaty which, up to the ratification of the general act of Berlin twelve years later, contained the only formal definition of the relations of the United States to the Samoan group. By the second article of this treaty the Government of the United States was granted "the privilege of enter ing and using the port of Pago Pago, and establishing therein and on the shores thereof a station for coal and other naval supplies," and the Samoan Government engaged that it would thereafter "neither exercise nor authorize any jurisdiction within said port adverse to such rights of the United States or restrictive thereof." By the fifth article it was provided that

If, unhappily, any differences should have arisen or shall hereafter arise between the Samoan Government and any other government in amity with the United States, the Government of the latter will employ its good offices for the purpose of adjusting those differences upon a satisfactory and solid foundation.

These are the only stipulations in the treaty that could serve to attract attention to it. The impression produced by a discriminating examination of them is that they were inspired rather by an amiable desire on the part of our Government not to appear to be wholly insensible to the friendly advances of the Samoans than by any supposition that the character of our relations to Samoa greatly concerned us. Indeed, it is quite clear that in the five years that had elapsed since Steinberger was first sent out to gather information in regard to the islands, the Government and people of the United States had made such small progress toward a conception of the importance of the group that, if the Samoans had not been incited by our local representatives to send an ambassador to Washington to obtain a treaty, none would have been made.

The way, however, was then open to form with Samoa any connection that our interests might seem to require. Intestine disorders, often culminating in civil war, had demonstrated the fact that unless the islands were to be abandoned to the rude and barbarous modes of life of the semicivilized and unorganized tribes that inhabited them, some kind of a strong central government must be established there. Indeed, it was apparent that such a government was required not only for the control of the natives, but also for the suppression of the mischievous plots and persuasions of the handful of adventurers who had found

their way thither from various foreign lands, and who, with the cooperation of their consular representatives, largely occupied themselves in stirring dissensions among the natives and in encouraging them to solicit from one foreign power or another either annexation or protection, whichever might be attainable.

Nevertheless, in 1878, the Government of the United States, though free to establish with Samoa such relations as our interests might seem to require, declined to assume even a protectorate.

Meanwhile certain events accentuated what had previously and has since been a marked feature of our relations to Samoa, namely, the disregard by our local representative at Apia of the distintive national policy which our Government had pursued since the days of Washington and seemed desirous still to pursue. In 1877, and again in 1878, the flag of the United States was raised by different consular representatives of this Government at Apia as the sign of a protectorate. On neither occasion was the act sustained; but it thus appears that on three occasions in as many years this Government was compelled to renounce the unauthorized assumptions of its representatives in respect to that distant community.

On January 24, 1879, a treaty was concluded between Germany and Samoa, by which the latter Government conceded to the former a right to establish a naval station in the harbor of Saluafata, and engaged not to grant a similar right in that harbor to any other nation.

On the 28th of August in the same year a treaty was concluded between Great Britain and Samoa, by the eighth article of which a right was granted to Her Britannic Majesty's Government to establish "a naval station and coaling depot" on the shores of a Samoan harbor thereafter to be designated by Her Majesty, there being excepted from this right the harbors of Apia and Saluafata, and "that part of Pago Pago" which might thereafter be "selected by the Government of the United States as a station."

Passing over the history of the five ensuing years, the next chapter in the history of our relations to Samoa begins with the year 1885. In January of that year Dr. Stuebel, the German consul-general, took possession of all the land within the municipality of Apia, so far as the Samoan Government's sovereign rights in it were concerned, to hold it as security till an understanding with that Government should be arrived at for the protection of German interests. As a counterdemonstration the American consul, Greenebaum, raised the American flag and proclaimed a protectorate.

The situation thus created seemed to require the discharge by the United States of its obligation under the treaty of 1878 to employ its good offices in behalf of the Samoan Government. The phrase "good offices" is necessarily vague, and the circumstances show that it was not inserted in the treaty of 1878 for the purpose of involving the United States in the responsibilities of a protectorate. The inference is quite the reverse. But the situation existing in 1885 presented, as clearly as any situation could present, an occasion for the employment of good offices. Our ministers at London and Berlin were, therefore, instructed to say that the claim of an American protectorate over Samoa by the U. S. consul at Apia was wholly unauthorized and disapproved, no protectorate by any foreign power being desired; and to suggest that the British and German ministers at Washington be instructed to confer with the Secretary of State with a view to the establishment of order. This suggestion was accepted with the modification that, before the conference was held, each of the three Govern

ments should send an agent to Samoa to investigate and report upon the condition of affairs in the islands.

This preliminary having been accomplished, a conference was held at Washington in June and July, 1887, between the Secretary of State and the British and German ministers. It was adjourned on the 26th of July, by unanimous consent, till the autumn, in order that the members might consult their respective Governments with a view to reconcile certain divergences of view which the discussions had disclosed. The German Government proposed in the conference a plan to commit the practical control of Samoan affairs to a single foreign official, called an adviser to the King, and to be appointed by the power having the preponderance of commercial interests. The plan proposed by the United States was to commit the administration of the laws to an executive council, to be composed of the Samoan King and vice-king and three foreigners, one of whom should be designated by each of the treaty powers, but who should hold their commissions and receive their compensation from the native Government so as to be independent of the influence and control of the powers designating them. It was also proposed that any arrangement that might be devised should be embodied by the powers in identic, but several and independent, treaties with Samoa.

Germany objected to the plan of the United States on the ground that it did not promise a solution of existing difficulties which were largely due to rival foreign interests. The British minister supported the German minister and, incidentally, the German plan.

Immediately after the adjournment of the conference, the German Government instructed its representative in Samoa to make a demand on Malietoa for reparation for certain wrongs alleged to have been committed by him and his people, all of which antedated the assembling of the conference, and, if he should be unwilling or unable to afford satisfaction, to declare war upon him "personally." War was declared, Malietoa was dethroned and deported, and Tamasese, who had sometime previously been vice-king but had lately been in arms against the Government, was installed as King, with a German named Brandis, who had long been connected with German commercial interests in Samoa, as adviser.

The understanding with which the conference was opened in 1887 was that, pending its deliberations, affairs in the islands should remain in statu quo. The adjournment of the conference till the autumn without dissent from any quarter was not considered by the United States to disturb that understanding, and the action of Germany seemed to involve a question of the consideration due to this Government. A situation wholly unanticipated and, in the opinion of this Government, wholly unnecessary was thus created; nor was it relieved by the fact that it was not without parallel in the history of nations whose policy had not preserved them from becoming involved in contests concerning remote and uncivilized lands. The United States had not consciously sought to participate in such a contest. It had merely endeavored to fulfill a treaty stipulation which required nothing more than friendly interposition. But our first adventure in that direction afforded most signal and convincing proof that the only safeguard against all the evils of interference in affairs that do not specially concern us is to abstain from such interference altogether.

In September, 1888, many of the natives revolted against the Government of Tamasese and chose Mataafa as King. The incidents of -the ensuing war it is unnecessary now to recapitulate, but they served