The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-01-30
STORY OF AN EYE WITNESS.
Minister Stevens Assisted the
Provisional Government
in Attaining Power.
Gross S~uppressions Of the Native
Side of the Contro-
Versy.

WASHINGTON, Jan. so, 1S94.-The Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations tins morn
ing promptly renewed the Hawaiian investl-
cation, one of the witnesses, Mi. +. w.
Reader, who failed to reach here yesterday,
being put upon the stand. Mr.. Reader
resides in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and was a
tourist in the Islands at the time
of the revolution, having gone there
about -four months prior to the outbreak.
To the committee he said he saw as much as
person could see who was not an active
participant, and had talked with members
of the Queens Cabinet, commanders
of the provisional forces, and
members of the Committee of Safety. After
giving something of the history OF the
Islands as he had gathered it, Mr.. Header
said he had been there but a few weeks
when he detected a lack of unity
among the people, and the hostllity
between the natives and the progressive
foreigners and Americans, when ne knew
would lead, sooner or later, to a conflict.
Mr.. Header explained the formation OF
the Committee of Safety for the purpose OF
oyerturning what remained of the native
Government.
MINISTER STEVENS OffER,
The witness then testified concerning GER
tain facts given by Mr.. Petersen, the At
torney General. Mr.. Thurston told Mr..
Peterson. witness said, so, early on Sunday
morning, that the Queen was to be deposed,
and that Minister Stevens had said he would
support the movement if properly an
nounced.
Peterson related to him the meetings of
Stevens with the committee, in which
Stevens said he could do nothing so long as
Wilson was Marshal, and said that the Min
lister appeared to have a grievance against
Wilson.
Mr. Thurston had stated in the public
prints that there were 5000 people at the
Monday mass meeting. Mr.. Reader de
clared that there were not more than 1900
persons, of which fully 500 were there from
idle curiosity. This was the meeting
that declared the Hawaiian monarchy at an
end. The meeting of the natives, witness
said, was fully as largelyrrattended. 1t was
freely talked ON the streets that members OF
the Advisory Committee said Mr..
Stevens had promised to help 1.-THE
insurgents, and that when a fair number OF
people would declare a provisional Govern
ment, he would recognize it as the Cow
eminent de facto. The pivotal point upon
which the Judgment hinges, contended
Mr.. Reader, is whether ON January
IA. Is and 16 American lives and property
were so imperilled that the marines had to
be landed to protect them. No such con-
dition, he said, existed. There was no body
three DAYS except the United States
troops. Thu Queens force was ample to
protect Americans, to maintain order and
secure the peace of the city. He challenged
any man to point out any American citizen
whose life or property was in danger. s I
THE WHOLE MATTER PREARRANGTD. s
Citizens walked the streets unarmed, as
usual, up to the time martial law was pro
claimed. No American interests were to be
protected, he said, by lodging the troops
In Arion Hall; it was simply a strategic
point where they expected the
attack to be made, and the marines were to
receive the shock. TIL whole matter, he de-
clared, bore every evidence of having been
pre-arranged, for the Boston who was 200
miles away at target practice steamed into
the harbor when she was wanted.
Mr.. Reader is said to have declared
that he did not approve of the course
of the Queen; it was revolutionary,
and demanded investigation. The remedy
was to be found, however, under the law
of the land. She could and should have
been arrested and tried, and meanwhile her
successor, Kaiulani, who had been named,
should have been placed on her throne. The
native government would thus nave been
continued and the natives satisfied. He be-
lieyed the present policy of the Administra-
ton showed a desire to deal justly with all
parties.
ACTS OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT.
Mr.. Reader then reclted the acts of the
Provisional Government. Among other
things, a law was passed making it a crime
to talk against or publish anything against
the new Government, or concerning the
character of any of its members; the
writ-of habeas corpus was suspend
ed, and the liberty of the citizens
restricted. The native side of the story of
the revolution was, he said, suppressed,
and the first authorized statement from
that side came from Paul Neumann,
when he was sent to Washington a
month after the revolution. The efforts to
suppress the truth, Mr.. Reader said, remind
ed one of the star chamber sessions of the
Fifteenth century. The local military
force was recruited, Mr.. Reader said,
by paying exorbitant wages, n
the army put under the command of
a ~"vagabond' named Soper. The Govern
ment overthrow, he said, was Americas all
but in name, and in concluding this part of
his statement, Mr.. Reader said
1.-The American is there and the same as
he was before he went there-a grasping,
INSCRIPTIONS money-getter, and he has
plundered the Islands" 2