The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-06-14
1919 pACIrrC
THE PACIFIC
GommertialA
SATURDAY,. June "a.
~ III . y t-'LF II
The London Times on Hawaiian Affairs.

States OF these Islands. whereupou the Times
comments as follows, under date OF January . {;
.. It will be seen from the letter Of our Amer
lean Correspondent that the policy Of the United
States Government respecting the Sandwich lzl-
auds l. exciting public interest on the other SIDE
Of the Atlantic a. well a. here. We have lately
published on this subject some significant ON
muuicati0ns, but we do not know that those who
have been disturbed in mind by the ambitious
projects Of conquest in the Pacific imputed 70 the
United States will find much comfort IN the anal
ysis Of the state of affairs in the Sandwich Islands
with which the late Bishop of Honolulu recently
favored us; and though Ar. ConsulGeneral Hop
kins has taken a somewhat different tone, he has
not explicitly contradicted the Missionary Prelate.
IL may be reasonably cOnjectured that DR.. Staley,
who represented English interests and the claims
Of the Anglican Church at the capital of Hawaii,
j. free from all prepOssesslOn In favor OF American
influences, If he may not be credited with q
certain bias against them, which some readers
imagine they detect in his observations. The
American missionaries, settlers, and traders In
the Sandwich group regard themselves, and are
regarded by the English with whom they came
into contact, as the rivals of England In all the
spheres Of action which present themselves 10
civilized nations in semi-civilized countries-in
political power, in commercial enterprise, and in
the emulation of religious conquest. At this
distance from the scene Of rivalry we may be
inclined to make light of such competition, but
IN the BHcllC the reality OF the contest Is reCOg-
nIZed, and the late Bishop of Honolulu is not
likely to take sides against his countrymen and
against his church. DIR. Staley's evidence may,
therefore, be accepted, so far as it fayors the pro-
iects attributed TO Americans, as unimpeachable ;
and it must be allowed that the tenor of his
testimony is discOuraging to those who still cher
ism the conviction that English will prevail over
American influences in the Sandwich Archipelago.
The absorption of these Islands in the dominions
of the Union may be accomplished speedily or be
long delayed but DR.. Staley's evidence places it
beyond a doubt that the moral and commercial
annexation of the Sandwich group by the United
States has been accomplished many years since,
and merely awaits formal recognition. Mr..
Consul Hopkins does not contest this, but urges
the necessity of guaranteeing the neutrality of
the islands on the ground that their position gives
them political and commercial importance. No
doubt the situation Of Honolulu, nearly midway
between San Francisco and SYDNEY, and about the
same distance from Shanghai, renders this port
important; and if we could dispose of events at
will, we might reasonably desire to see Honolulu
a free port. But if, as Mr.. Hopkins allows, any
change effected in the form of Government will
be done constitutionally,' on what pretence can
we interfere? 1t is neither the wish nor the
interest of this country TO create and undertake
the responsibility of maintaining a Belgium in
the Pacific.
. Our claim to any right of interference with
the destinies of Hawaii, apart from the right of
this country and of every independent nation to
i~nterpose when a manifest act of spoliation or
oppression is attempted, must, upon careful scru-
tiny. be pronounced omewhat shadowy. The
proceedings of Cook among the Sandwich Island
ers, which ended in his murder. will scarcely bear
TO be examined by the light with which we regard
human beings even when unvurnished by civili-
ZatiOn, as men and brothers.A Neither formally
nor equitably can Cooks discoveries be said to
have won England any specific rights over the
Sandwich Archipelago. Nor can the singular
negotiation into which King Kamehameha l.
entered with the English Government in 1910
be viewed as giving us Il more secure title to the
Protectorate which some would set up in opposi-
ton to the alleged designs of America. When
Kamehameha L., after completing the union of
the Sandwich Islands under n single Government,
began to feel the need of some strong power to
lean upon, he turned quite naturally, and, indeed.
inevitably, to England. The power of France on
the seas was at that time annuIIed. and the
United States, though already growing in strength,
were still strictly an Atlantic Power, almost
unknown in the Pacific waters. Accordingly we
find that the Hawaiian King, in 1910, wrote to
George Ill, offering to acknowledge the King of
England as Sovereign, and TO place the Sandwich
Islands under the protcctOratc of Great Britain.
The offer was formally accepted, but no practical
steps were taken to carry out the contract. The
islanders were left to themselves, and though they
learned enough OF modern ideas from intercourse
with European traders and adventurers to abandon
the debasing paganism in which Cook had found
them sunk, they had adopted in its stead no other
system Of religion and morality. The work of
evangelizatiOn was begun by American missiona-
ries in 1920, and since that date. proceeding
hand in hand with education, it has remained for
the most part under the guidance OF those who
first set 1T on foot. The result of American
teaching, secular and spiritual, was that in 1910,
King Kamehameha LII. surrendered his despotic
sovereignty and inaugurated 4 Constitution.
Three years later England and France, between
whom Jealousies concerning Pacific empire had
thus early arisen, agreed jointly to declare the
independence of Hawaii, and to renounce for
their own part any pretensiOn TO ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
in that quarter. Nothing was heard of any
English claim founded upon the Protectorate
offered to George Ill. in 1910 by Kamehameha |.
and accepted by England at the time. 1t was
felt, perhaps, that it would be not only unfair,
but ridiculous to insist upon a contract which on
the one side had not been performed at all. There
had, In fact, been no pretence of performance on
the part of England, and the successful labors of
the American missionaries must have shamed the
nominal Protectors OF Hawaii. AT all events,
whether England was or was not willing in 1913
to do what it might be contended was her duty
towards the sandwich Islanders, the jealousy of
France was an insuperable barrier. NJ. Guizot
was then in power, and the case of Mr.. Pritchard
IN Tahiti had shown to what lengths French
aggression would 60. Mr.. Hopkins alleges that
the United States were in fact parties TO the
original agreement, though their Government did
not unite with England and France IN signing
the Treaty.
Bishop Staley takes up the tale a few years
later than this. He speaks, as he tells us, from
personal acquaintance with the last two Kings,
the first of whom was raised to the throne in
1851. The American missionaries had intro
duced, with the religion and the education they
brought across the Pacific, the democratic ideas
of the Republic, and King Kamehameha ",
when he acceded in 1854, found a Constitution
existing based on universal suffrage, no property
qualification for members of the Legislature
required two Chambers-the Upper, though
nominally the House of Chiefs, being recruited
from foreign residents who had shown any par
ticular interest in the country We do not
know that any conspicuous calamity resulted