The morning call., 1894-05-10
LOST IN SAMOA.
Gresham in a Critical
HumOr.
OLD POLICIES ABANDONED.
What the New Have Cost the
Nation.
BETTER TO HAVE STAlD OUT.
A Letter Probably Preliminary to
Handing the Islands Over to
Great Britain.
BETTER TO HAVE sTAID OUT.

WASHINGTON, May 9.-The President
to-day submitted TO the Senate the cor
TeSDOndence relative to Samoa, called for
by Senator Gray's resolution of the 9th
ult The correspondence is very volumin-
Gus. covering about 10000 typewriter
pages. In submitting it to the President
Secretary Gresham has taken the oppor-
tunity to set out at length his conclusions
as to the workings of the tripartite agree
ment. This letter of the Secretary is Ger
tain to give rise to much disc ussiOn and
controversy.
A period of almost five years having
elapsed since the conclusion of the general
sct Of Berlin, the present occasion is. the
Secretary says, not inappro oprIate for a
review of the results. In order that the
subject may be fully compreheDded he
presents general survey Of our relations
to Samoa. before and since the conclusion
of the general act, and reeites the policy
we have pursued toward the islands. 1t is
in our relations to Samoa that we have
made our first departure from our tradi
tional and well established policy o!
avoiding alliances with foreign powers in
relation TO objects remote from this hemi-
sphere. Like all other human transac-
tiens, the wisdom Of that departure must
be tested by Its fruits. II there be no
evidence of detriment suffered before its
application or of advantages since gained
we are confronted with the serious re-
sponsibility of having, without sufficient
grounds, departed from q policy which is
not only coeaual with our Government
but to which may, in a great measure. be
ascribed the peace, prosperity and the
general influence of the United States.
In 1873 special agent named Steinber-
ger was sent to the islands By the Secre-
tary of State for the express purpose of
obtaining information in regard to their
condition. This step seems to have been
suggested by certain highly respectable
commercial persons. who represented the
opportunities of strengthening our COM
mercial relations in that quarter of the
globe, and by circumstance occur
ring in the preceding year, when
naval officer of the United
States. acting on his own responsibility,
entered into an agreement with the great
chief of the bay of Pago-Pago whereby
the latter, while protesting his wish for
the friendship and protection of the United
States, granted to this Government the
exclusive privilege of establishing in that
harhor naval station.
In May. 1872. President Grant communi-
Gated this agreement to the Senate, saying
he would not hesitate TO recommend its
approval but for the protection to which
1t seemed to pledge the United States, but
it does not appear that the Senate took
any action on the agreement.
Secretary Gresham continues with an
account of Steinberger's connections with
Samoa and his efforts to bring about the
annexation of the islands TO this country :;
his unauthorized promise to the islanders
of the protection of the United States, and
his final deportation from the Islands on a
man-of-war. The Stein nberger-Godefroy
episode is also reeounted. On January g.
1878, there was concluded at Washington
the treaty which up to the ratification OF
the general act of Berlin, twelve years
later, contained the only formal definition
of the relations of the United States to the
Samoan group. The OPPRESSION produced
by discriminating examination of these
treaty stipulations is that they were in
spired rather by an amicable desire on the
part OF our Government not to appear to
the Samoan Islands than by any supDosi-
tion that the character Of our relations to
Samoa greatly concerned US. The way,
however, was then open to form with
Samoa any connection eur interests might
seem to require.
The occasion to make good the obliga-
ton of the United States under the treaty
OF 1878 re-employing good officers in behalf
of the Samoan Government arose in 1885,
when Mr.. Stuebel, the German Consul,
took possession OF all the land in which
is the municipality of Apia, so far as the
Samoan Government sovereign rights in
il were concerned, to hold it as security
until an understanding with the Govern
ment should be arrived at for the protec-
tion of German interests. As counter
demonstration the American Consul.
Greene baum, raised the American flag and
proclaimed a protectorate. Subsequently
our Ministers at London and Berlin we're
Instructed to say that the csaim of an
American protectOrate over Samoa by the
United States Consul at Apia was unau-
thorzed and disapprOved, no protectorate
by any foreign power being desired: and
to suggest that the British and German
Ministers al Washington be instructed to
confer with the Secretary Of State with a
view to the establishment Of order The
oecretary details ar some length the facts
connected with the tripartite protectorate
IN Samoa. the establishment of a new
form Oh Government, the election of
Malletoa as King, tie reluctance of natives
to accept the new regime, the resort to
coercive measures, the breaking out of
war in July, 1893, the Intervention of the
treaty powers and the rebellion of Mstsafa
and eleven other chiefs.
Then followed the appointment of Henry
c. Ide as Chief Justice and the mora re.
cent troubles in Samoa. The Secretary
concludes as follows: ''Soberly surveying
the history of our relations with Samoa.
we well may inquire what we have gained
by our departure from our established
policy beyond the expenses, the RESPONSE
bility and the ENHANCEMENT that have so
far been the only fruits. One of the great
difficulties in dealing with matters that lie
at distance is the fact that the imagiDa-
ton is no longer restrained by the contem-
plation Of objects in their real proportions.
Our experience in the case of Samoa serves