The Portland daily press., 1893-11-20

1t President Cleveland and Secretary
Gresham were expecting the Australia
to bring news of the restoration OF the
Hawaiian Queen they must have been
grievously disappointed, for not only
did she bring no news of that kind, but
on the contrary all the testimony of her
passengers tended to show that the
provisional government is strongly es-
tablished and governing the country to
the satisfaction of all the intellient in
habitants Of the island, and that the
chances of destroying it except by force are
exceedingly few. The instructions given
to Minister Willis have never been made
public SO that their precise character is
not known. But the inevitable inference
from Secrestary Gresham's letter which
was made public by the President is
that they contemplated the restoration of
the Queen. Whether they went so far
as to authorize him to use force without
further consultation with the State De-
partment or whether he was to report if
he found moral suasion insufficient are
questions which are not settled, but it is
SuUlClOuCly VIGIL CSUd DllSuCu UudU uc WIS
promptly and vigorously to apply himself
to the work of restoring the monarchy.
The news brought by the Australia seems
to show that for some reason he had for
two weeks utterly ignored the principal
object OF his mission. His address to
the provisional government contains no
allusion to it, and when the Australia left
the government and everybody else on
the island had apparently not received
the remotest hint that the restoration
of the Queen had ever been thought of
What the reason was for this apparent dill
atoriness in proceeding with the principal
work of his mission can only be con-
jectured. A plausible explanation is
that the Minister found the situation
much different from what he antici-
pated. Doubtless his idea of the pro-
visional government when he left this
country was the same as Secretary
Gresham's, that it was weak and would
not stand alone minute after the moral
support of this government was with
drawn. Instead of that he has found
government strong in the respect and
confidence of all the intelligent residents
of the island, managing affairs far better
than they had ever been managed before
and fully able to take care of itself
Finding, therefore, that his instructions
were given under gross misapprehen-
sion of the facts in the case he hesitates
to proceed without communicating the
facts to the government and getting
further advice There can be no doubt
that the administration believed the
Australia would bring news of i'm
portant action of some kind 1t has
brought none whatever The Minister
would not have failed to execute his
commission without reasons that ap-
pealed strongly to him. He could not
have been influenced by the storm of
opposition which the administration
policy has encountered in this country
because he could know nothing of it,
and if he apprehended such opposition
that would have been a reason for acting
promptly before it could make it's in
f1uence felt upon the island. 1t is difficult
to conceive of any reason for delay except
the one that we have suggested, namely,
that he found a very different state of
things from what he anticip ated,