Omaha daily bee., 1893-11-30
HE CALLS THEM UNTRUTHS
Stevens Characterization Of Blouuts State
ments of the Hawaiian Affair.
Mr.. %CLEvELAND'S ENVOY ANSWERED
Public Letter from the Ex-Minister on the
Report Made to the President
Strong Dcnials of the Com
missioncr's Assertions.

AUGUSTA, Me, Nov. 2a.-Following is
synopsis of cx-Ninister Stevens answer to
Commissioner Blount:
"a deep sense of duty to my country and
as II minister's duty to defend an insult
threatened against Il struggling American
colony, planted as righteously and firmly on
the Northern Pacific isles as our pilgrim
fathers established themselves on plymouth
Rock, demand that ! shall make an answer
TO the astounding misrepresentation and
untruths of Commissioner Blouut's report on
Hawaiian affairs, Il copy of which | first
obtained with difficulty Saturday even
ing, November %. 1t is proper for me
to preface my answer by briefly re-
f%erring to the fact that those familiar with
international rules and proceedings and who
have had diplomatic experience must be
astonished that Secretary Gresham and his
commissioner should make before the world
such a persistent effort to discredit the
recent acts OF the department they now rep
resent and which was once represented by
Thomas Jefferson, William l.. Marcy, Will
liam Seward and j. G. Blaine.
Sent on n Pecu.itr ErranI
"Not wishing to be severe on a neophyto
in diplomacy, with little knowledge of the
worlds affairs outside of his own country,
sent on a very peculiar GRAND, amid cur
rents and quicksands entirely unknown to
him, | say he has been partly the victim of
circumstances having been caught in the
| meshes ana snarcs adroitly prepared for
| him by the cunning a advisers of the fallen
Iiliuokalani, and by the shrewd, sharp,
long-eXperlenced British diplomatic agent,
whose AIMS and hopes Blount has served so
well and without the least uspicion that he
was aiding ultra-British interests even more
than he was helping the Hawaiian monarch.
lists and the just dcthronement of the queen.
1t is clear enough from Blount's manner
from the day of his arrival at Honolulu, rs
well as by his letter to the Department of
State, written shortly after, that he de-
signed, at whatever cost, to repudiatc the
views and action OF the recently terminated
administration and that in order to do 50 he
must impugn the action of Minister Stevens
and commander of the United States steam
ship Boston.
"a total stranger, 1t was impossible for
Mr.. Blount to know how uniting 1T was Tor
HIM TO take up his quarters where he was
certain to be surrounded by royalistS and
where the supporters of the provisional gov
eminent would reluctantly so.
In a Nest of itoyaiists.
"Ihe hotel YVES kept by one who had
i served as kalakaua's chamberlain, who was
one of the principal persons i'll a syndicate
that had cheated the Hawaiian government
out of nearly 100000, a transaction which
Minister Merrill had officially reported to
Secretary. Bayard, ana this man was The
leading member of a firm that sought to
do its chief business with England, n
thoroughly unprlncipled opponent of the
provisional government and of American
performance IN the islands.
A Il precautionary; Safeguard against the
shutting out of tie Americans from ready
access to Commissioner Blount, a wealthy
and highly respectable widow lady of the
American colony was ready to grant the use
of her home to Mr.. and Mrs. Blount, the
commissioner to pay the same amount it
would cost him to live at the %royalist hotel.
This polite offer of an American resident to
an American commissioner did not originate
with the provisional government nor did the
provisional government have anything to do
with the proposed arrangement. A COM
mittee of three American citizens, born and
educated in the United States, men who had
not taken part in the revolutionary proceed
ings of the previous week, went on board
the Rush when that vessel came into
the harbor. At the request of the
three American gentlemen. they We're intro
duced to Mr.. Blolnt. His manner of re-
ceiving the visitors repealed them ana they
asked me 10 state the reasons why it would
not be pleasant to him and better for all
concerned not to go to the royalist hotel, but
to take residence on neutral ground, where
he would be master OF his own surroundings
AS delicately as | could do so / stated the
offer of the committee of his countrymen,
pointing out to him that by accepting their
proposal he would be near the archives OF
the legation, which he could conveniently
use and which | would be pleased to at once
place at his disposal. BruSkly he refused
the courtly and honestly intended offer o.
his countrymen and placed himself among
royalists and ultra-British surroundings.
snubbed by MI. Biount.
at is well known to all who have knowl
edge of diplomatic rules and customs tina
when a new diplomatic agent arrives at thu
capitol to whose government he is accredited
his predecessors and the occupant of th'
legation should receive him courteOusly
proffer his services to his successor, inform
him of the existing state of affairs and, II!
soon as convenient, give MIN access to TIN
legation archives. He did not allow me h
show to him the customary forms of intro
duciug HIM to the foreign diplomats Of tn,
land and the chef public men of Honolulu
A institutions and Implications II
Blount's report that | was adverse to his &C
cess to the legation records is a shameless
perVersion OF facts. To show the churacte
of the man into whose environments he S
quickly placed himself, | took to him In
printed dispatches of Minister Merrill to Sec
rotary Bayard, the printed records of the re
Gently adjourned Legislature, containin
the recorded votes for ana against the lot
, terry gang; the recorded votes as TO the re
cent election of ministers, the recent copy o
lottery charter, documents of great value
he had really come to Honolulu for any othe
purpose than to convict Harrison's admins
/, tration that tho senate foreign affairs con
mittee OF hasty and i'll advised action in jar
4 uary and February last.
HIS manner, while allowing me TO leav
2 these important documents in his room
/ showed that he cared not to receive then
0 and the general drift of his reply indicate
/ that he did not even read them.
r Denied Point Blank.
; "Cnder therdate of April 81 he says he di.
/ approved of n request of the provisional go
: ernIlent that the American forces be lande
: for drill. / here affirm that the provision;
. government never made such request. III
= provisional government followed the eAa'
u course followed by the monarchy.
> "What Blount SAYS about the Japanes
man-of-war is equally eXparte, absurd an
y cgotiStic. For weeks after his arrival
. Honolulu no had not even met OF spoke vii
the japanese minister. lc had neglected
= cali upon the Japanese officials and did NJ
u ask me 10 take him to the japanese leg4tic
and introduce him to the japanese repr
=, sentatiyes.
= Touching certain incidents Of suspiciC
u and alarm in Honolulu regarding some Of u
japanese on the islands and the sudden a
pearance there Of a powerful japanese iro
clad, in addition to u small vessel there,
February aud March, prior TO Mr.. Blum;
arrival, several weeks before the lal OF u