The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-03-14

WEDNESDAY, MARCH Il, 1891,
IMPOSING ON THE NATIVES

IMPOSING ON THE NATIVES !
1t appears that the native papers
have the idea that, if the United
States Government shall leave
Madame Dominis i'll the lurch, a
successful appeal for aid may be
made to England and France under
the terms of the Hawaiian treaty
signed by those powers in IS43.
Their point is that the treaty
binds England and France to pre-
serve the independence of the mon
archy. To learn the absurdity of
this postulate the natives have only
to read and digest the text of the
treaty, which is as follows:
Her Majesty the Queen of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
and His Majesty the King of the
French. taking into consideration the
existence in the Sandwich Islands of
"A government capable of providing for
the regularity of its relations with
foreign nations. have thought it right
to engage, reciprocally, to consider the
Sandwich Islands as an independent
State, and never to take possession,
neither directly nor under the title of
PrOtectorate, or under any other
form, of any part of the terri
tory of which they are composed.
L., Il f., pri
ripal Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs. and the Ambassador Extraor-
binary of His Ma iesty the King of the
French, at the Court of London, being
furnished with the necessary powers,
hereby declare, in consequence, that
their said Aiaiesties take reciproCally
that engagement.
In witness whereof the undersigned
have signed the present declaration,
and have affixed thereto the seal OF
their arms.
Done in duplicate, at London, the
2sth dag of November. in the year of
our Lord lS43.
ABERDEEN.
ST. AULAIRE.
Obviously there is nothing in
this engagement which binds Eng
land and France to preserve the
form of Hawaiian Government that
existed in IS43. The pledge simply
is that they shall cease to regard
Hawaii as an uncivilized and bar
barian land and recognize it as a
member of the worlds family of
nations, thereby debarring each
other from arbitrarily selling any
part of its territory. Had the case
been otherwise and as the native
press now interprets it, and had
the Monroe doctrine been wanting,
there might have been a prompt
interference with, and there
certainly would have been a
protest against, the revolution of
1898. But what did we fnd'
England took but the slightest
interest in the affair and one Of her
Ministers, responding to an inter
pellation, informed the House of
Commons that British subjects and
property here were safe under the
protection of the United States. As
for France she has never sent so
much as warship to Hawaii, or
filed protest against the change
of Government i'll any way. Both
counties, so long as neither was to
secure Hawaiian territory were and
have remained indifferent to the
domestic concerns of the group.
In the teeth of these facts it re-
quires much audacity on the part
of the native press, and equal
credulity among the native readers,
to assert and believe that a Mon
archist eonb can be made on be-
half of the dethroned Queen by the
aid of the treaty of I843. If moth
ing else stood in the way, the facts
that England and France are
now in semi-hostile diplomatic
relations and that the Monroe doc
trine includes Hawaii in its COM
prehensive scope, would prove in
superable barriers. Is there any
Royalist 50 foolish as to believe that,
in the present strained relations in
Europe, any Of the European
powers would aff,ront the Monroe
doctrine, which is all the time
being asserted here, for a small
prize like Hawaii? 1t needs
but a rudimentary knowledge
of affairs to assure one that
a quarrel with America on the
part of any continental nation
would bring the neighboring enc
mics Of that nation in arms against
her. Nothing would kindle a
flame quicker from one end of
Europe to another than a chance to
enlist the American republic on
one of the belligerent sides. Is it
to be seriously urged that upon
these fyspeck islands, which all
powers have acknowledged to be
within the sphere of American in
fluence, the immediate destiny OF