Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-28
Suspense Pending Legislation Re-
garding Annexation.
CLAIM TO TEE ISLAND OF PALMYRA
Dispute Over Registering the
Steamship China.
DELIGHTFUL CLIMATE
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
HONOLULU, August IA, 1897.
Hawaifs attitude now Is that of pro-
longed suspense. awaiting such decree as
the American Senate shall make for us at
the winter session. Not but that q general
feeling of expectation prevails that, with
no very prolonged delay, your decision will
be to annex us. Business and political cal
culations here are largely influenced by
such expectation. Even the redoubtable
Don Caesar Celso Moreno, so long in WASH
ington an exile from these balmy shores.
is pluming his pinions for fight hither, to
put himself at the head of native voters
and run for Office. He exhorts his former
protege, Bob Wilcox. to have all the natives
fall into line. register and vote. Evidently
the don dtscerns grand political opening,
such as is by no means to be neglected by
prince of carpet-baggers like himself,
who cnce captured Kalakaua, and only
failed to capture also the business COM
munity, whose force and value he under
rated. and whom he undiscriminatingly re-
viled as missionaries" They rallied and
fired him out of the country, for which he
has not loved them ever since.
Our expectations find nutriment in the
evident purpose of your government to
freshly evinced by the arrival this week
of Admiral Miller to take charge of the
United States naval forces in this harbor.
These consist of the cruiser Philadelphia
and the gunboat Marion. Until this week
the Japanese naval force was fully an
equal one. The training ship Hi-yei has
now gone her ways, leaving the Naniwa
alone to sustain Japanese influence. The
armament of the latter ship is heavier
than that of the Philadelphia, which has
nothing larger than her eight six-inch
guns. Undoubtedly Japan could easily
make q much more formidable naval de-
I'M Iyvnl Con-
at the present time, so far numbers of
ships and guns are concerned. As to the
force of manhood behind the guns. any
Wanting is not in place In this letter. Nor
energy Of Japan's protests against an
nexation is to be taken as altogether in
earnest.
H. B. M. gunboat Penguin has also just
sailed for Tanning l., and probably in
Sydney, contrary to her expectation in
coming here. She had been here taking
rest from extended series of deep-sea
soundings for the route of the intended
cable between Vancouver and Sydney. Our
latest advtces are that the laying of that
cable has been indefinitely postponed. In
consequence, the Penguin will probably be
Withdrawn from her present task. While
dosirous to see actively forwarded all cable
enterprises in this ocean. we are less con-
cerned for this cable, which 1t was proposed
to lay direct from Vancouver to Tanning
l. without calling at any part of our group.
because no islet could be surrendered by us
for exclusive British control. the United
States declining to consent thereto. Indeed
the competition of such cable across the
Pacific might seriously delay cable direct
from California here. by derogating from
income enough to support more than one
line crossing the Pacific. The most paying
line must be one direct to Asia. p.
The Dispute Over Palmyra.
In this connection may come in the dis
crssion about Fanning's reighbor. Palmyra
l., which is taken possession of by Eng
land. but probably belongs to Hawaii, and
| in the event of annexation will therefore
belong to the United States In 1889, Com
mander Nichols of H. B. M. s. Carmorant
finding 1t unoccupied, formally annexed it
to Great Britain. He was probably una
ware of proclamation made in 1862 by the
King of Hawaii, through his minister of
the interior, Lot Kamehameha, in the fol-
lowing terms:
Whereas. on the 18th day of April. 1862,
Palmyra Island. in lat deg. so min. N.
and long. 161 deg. So min. W., was taken
possession of with the usual formalities by
Capt. Zenas Bent he being duly authorized
tc do SO in the name of Kamehameha ",
King of the Hawaiian Islands,
Therefore, This is to give notice that the
i'd island so taken possession of is hence
forth to be considered and respected as part
Of the domain of the King of the Hawaiian
Islands. -,
'tSfgned) L. KAMEHAMEHA,
Minister of the Interior.
Department of Interior. June IS, 1862
The island was at that time held In own
ership by citizens of Hawaii, one, ut least,
of whom still resides here. Its value was
then In the guiana covering it's surface,
which the owners removed. leaving the
island after planting cocoanut trees, which
are still fourishjng. Palmyra Is rather
circle of islets upon a reef than single
island, after common fashion Of the coral
sidered one of what is really group of
Islands, having a remarkable coincidence in
relative position and arrangement with the
Hawaiian group. although they bear no
of the Hawaiian Islands. ard eighteen de-
grees distant, or about 100 miles. just
north Of the equator, are five equi-distant
coral atolls, of which Palmyra is one. form
ing chain. almost precisely alike, In
length and direction. to the Hawaiian
group. They are Christmas, Fannings,
Washington and Palmyra Islands, with
an extensive reef beyond them. Only the
former three are now inhabited and that
by Polynesan laborers and their managers
employed IN gathering copra or dried cocoa
nut meat The three are indisputably
British territory.
HawaiPs Claims.
According to the foregoing document.
now preserved in the Hawaiian archives
Hawaii has an indefeasible prior claim
to Palmyra I. TO which the United States
will fall heir. 1t certainly seems to have
between Honolulu and the valuable Arnert-
can naval station of Pagopago in Samoa
Apparently some millions OF years in the
past there existed in that locality noble
chain of large and lofty volcanic noun
tains, fully rivaling the later formed Ha-
waiian group. These gradually subsidized
into the oceans bed. just as formerly did
the great chain northwest OF and continu-
Gus with this group. Around the sub
merging submits continued to grow their
surrounding barrier" or curinging reefs
After the submits had disappeared those
coral reefs continued to maintain Them
selves above the surface of the sea. the
white gravestones of the drowned noun
tains that lowered there in PIiocene or
Pleistocene days. England holds the best
three OF the four palm-crowned rings. and
need not begrudge America the fourth and
pc crest one for stepping stone in her
ocean domain.
Registry Of the China.
One of the anticipatory effects of annex
alton has appeared this week in very
serious difficulty arising between this gov
eminent and the owners of the noble
steamship China. which arrived here on
the 11th from San Francisco, en- route to