The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1890-06-06

at the very time he made this denial the
foreign representatives we're all in pos
session OF copies OF the draft afterwa rds
published by the Government: and
similar denial was made in San Fran
cisco by Mr.. Carter. 1t has been said
tat diplomacy is the art OF hiding and
denying the truth, but we find out here
thxs, unless the diplomats are first-class
deceivers, which is not given to every
man, the best diplomatic policy, AZ Bis
marck said, is to stick to the truth.
However, We cannot dismiss this part
| OF our report, without emphasizing the
TACT that We, as Representatives of the
| Nation, consider it to be q very singular
| notion, in q public officer, such as the
Minister Of Foreign Affairs, to hold the
| opinion that private correspondence on
State matters belong to the individual
Probably Minister Austin considers his
incumbency to be for his own benefit,
| and the whole country to be kind of q
ranch which he can and has the right to
manage to suit himself and friends, and
not the Sovereign and people he is sup
| posed to represent. We also further take
the liberty of recommending Minister
Austin's views to the meditation of all
would-be politicians and diplomats: any
l SAiAAHAoA oSSaoa, any pOAAtACAi VI Ah0ICIdj
| misdemeanOr, anything they want to
keep in the dark and withhold from the
! knowledge of the people is simply to be
labelled "private and personal" and it
will then nicely escape all and every in
vestigation!
These four charges made by your COM
mittee against Minister Austin, would
in some countries be sufficient. for q
case Of impeachment, but your COM
mittee will limit themselves to say
that, at any rate, they consider the Min
lister of Foreign Affairs in this matter
| guilty of disrespect towards this House in
! trying to withhold documents whether
| public or privately bearing on the very
| questions you had instructed US to inves-
tigate, the result of such concealment
being that our report cannot be as con-
elusive as it might otherwise have
been, and that from the simple
perusal of the explanations offered
by the four Ministers, together
with that of the official documents
placed on the table of this House by the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gall of which
! are annexed to the present report) it
is hard to reconstruct the history of the
treaty negotiations. However, the first
conclusion to be drawn from the compari-
| son of the Ministerial utterances is the
following, viz: that it hardly seems
possible that four intelligent men who
have made special study of any sub
ject-as these four about the proposed
| treaty-could ever differ so much in their
i recollections and statements of many
important points. 1t would take too
much of your valuable time to bring
forth all the contradictions that exist be-
tween those four statements, but as we
hope that all the documents will be pub
lished by order of this honorable body,
every member will be able to Judge for
himself, and we shall only offer few re-
| marks on the most important.
It cannot be doubted that for several
months before Mr.. Carter's visit to these
Islands, the Ministers had made up their
| minds to ask the United States for new
treaty, whether in the interest of the
country or to protect themselves we can
not say. In the absence of the docu-
| ments concealed, or at least refused to
us by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, we
find that Mr.. Austin claims for himself
the paternity of the idea, whilst the At
torney-General brings it home to Mr..
idea is supported by what is known Of
l
| Damon's semi-admissions. However
| what does not admit denial, is that Mr..
Carter drew out the draft of the existing
proposed treaty, together with the OBJ.
noxious clause of the landing of troops,
| called Additions to Art. w." Mr..
Austin positively says that those addi.
tons only came in much later, as a
sequence to the discussion of the other
articles, and Mr.. Thurston corroborates
this, whilst Mr.. Damon and Mr.. Ashford
distinctly state that the clause appeared
in appendix, at the very first presenta-
ton of the draft. The missing docu.
ments alone could decide whether the
obnoxious clause was premeditated OF
not.
The Attorney General further says
that at FIRST this same clause OF landing
troops was unanimously agreed to and
that some objections against it only grew
out gradually, in subsequent discussions
the principal being that that clause
would give any existing government toe
much power against the people, and tha
His Majesty the King would certainly
object to it and might thereby be induced
to refuse the whole treaty; Mr.. Carter il
then said to have suggested to drop it fol
. the time being, with the understanding
!, of its being revived in the draft in Wash
| Myton; the other Ministers land NOR.
emphatically Mr.. Austin) deny this anG
the House will have to take all of those
conflicting testimonies for what the!
will consider them worth.
About the real intent of the treaty,
{ would have been our duty to- direct on
T investigation in such way as to brini
, out proofs, to exonerate the Cabinet from
, certain rumors which had circulated
} among the people, viz, that some Of thu
: Ministers had been instigated = in tht
r first starting of the treaty negotiations
3 by the idea and hope of Fastening tn
/ annexation of this Kingdom to tn
, United States, even of forcing that an
y nexation on the American Government
! and that suggestions to such an effec
had been offered to Minister Carter. so a
r to obtain through him more stringen
: treaty, opening the way, which the troop
9 landing clause would easily have con
! summated, had it not been for the sub
: sequent opposition OF the rest OF the Cab
: met. We are sorry to say that, owing t
} the ill-advised policy of the secrecy OF tn
K Minister of Foreign Affairs, We have nc
: been able to elucidate the question, an
. the House will be reduced to az
4 cept the assurance now give
t unanimously by the four Ministers
y that they never intended anythin
. against the independence of the country
It in the same way the real wish Of tn
t American Government of preserving GU
Q independence would have been bette
established, if it had been possible
i prove who was the originator of tn