The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-19
Tho Hawaiian Annexation Treaty,

Tho Hawaiian Annexation Treaty.
The treaty negotiated by President Nc
KINLEY, whereby the Hawaiian Islands be.
come a Territory of the United States, Is in
some particulars an improvement upon that
submitted by President HARRISON to the
Senate. The Chief Magistrate deserves
the moro credit for the skill and caution
with which this document Is drawn
for the reason that he is understood to have
received no assistance, but rather obstruc-
tion, from the nominal Secretary Of State.
Secretary SHERMAN's views of foreign pol
icy seem to vary from day to day, and the
latest utterance regarding Hawaii imputed
to him agrees with his acknowledged dec
l~aration concerning Cuba, "that he would
not take it for n gift"
1t was high time, in view of q Japanese
warship in Hawaiian waters, and of a some
what peremptory demand made by Japan
upon the feeble Honolulu Government, that
the status of Japanese laborers in Hawaii
and the conditions on which they shall
hereafter have access to the islands should
be definitely fixed by treaty. In 1884 there
were just 116 Japanese In Hawaii six
years later there were 1880. They
lave since gone on increasing at
q rate which has threatened Boon
to make them the dominant element
in the population. During the last four
years, in which. owing to Mr.. C~LEvELAND's
unwise and i~ll-tempered withdrawal Of the
Harrison annexation treaty, we have been
obliged to leave the Hawaiians to their
fate, n process Of absorption by immigra-
tion has been quietly promoted by the
Mikado's empire. That is a scheme which
might work well enough in the Philippines,
but which was certain to miscarry in an in
sular group mainly indebted to our
missionary efforts for its civilization,
and closely bound to us by commercial
and industrial interests, and over which
for some sixty years we have asserted a
moral suzerainty.
By the third article of tho treaty,
signed on June 16, due notice is served
upon Japan that the existing treaties
of the Hawaiian islands with foreign
nations will forthwith cease and deter
mine, being replaced by such treaties as
may exist or may be hereafter concluded
between the United States and such foreign
nations. 1t follows from this notice that
the municipal legislation of the Hawaiian
Islands, enacted merely for the fulflment
Of their emigration treaty with Japan, will
also be extinguished by the fact of annexa-
ton. The legal rights of Japanese laborers
In the new Territory of Hawaii can be set
tied at some future date by the Govern
ments of Washington and Toxic.
What is true of the Japanese is true also
of the Portuguese. One effect of the reel.
procity treaty concluded between the
United States and Hawaii in 1875 was to
create a pressing demand for labor to carry
out the man. new agricultural and indus.
trial enterprises projected. Through the
agency Of DR.. HILLEBRAND, who was re-
siding in the island of Madeira in 1877,
arrangements were made for the emigra-
tion of Portuguese from the Azores and
Madeira. A pioneer company of $50 Portu-
guese arrived in September, 1873, from
Func hal, and since then over 10000 more
have been added to the population of the
island. Their status, also, in the new Ter.
ritory will be regulated by treaty between
the United States and Portugal. With re.
gard to the Chinese, of whom in 1890 there
were 1901 in Hawaii, Article ". of the
treaty very properlyprovides that there shall
be no further immigration Of Chinese in
to the islands except upon such conditions
as are now, or may hereafter be, allowed by
the laws of the United States. Moreover,
and this is a precaution of great impor.
lance in the eyes Of our citizens on the Pa
ciflc slope, mo Chinese by reason Of any
thing herein contained shall be allowed to
| enter the United States from the Hawaiian
Islands,"
So much for the satisfactory purport of
the treaty itself. Now for its international
aspects. We may say at once that the
notion that any European or Asiatic power
will protest against our annexation of the
islands may be dismissed as preposterous.
1t is true that the London Globe, a news.
paper which distinguished itself by de-
scribing the ~Schomburgk line as the sacro-
sanct boundary of British Guiana on the
west, asserts that the United States lave
no right to conclude an annexation treaty
without obtaining the assent of England
n France. The editor should try to re-
plenish his knowledge with the aid of a
minor clerk in the Foreign Office. We will,
however, save him the trouble.
In 1s43 the two Governments, France
n England, united in n Joint declara-
ton to the effect that her Majesty, the
Queen Of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, and his Majesty, the
King of the French, taking into considera-
ton 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 ISL
ands as an independent State, and never
to take possession, either directly or under
the title of a protectorate or under any
other form, of any part of the territory
OF which they are composed" There is
no doubt that by this engagement both
France and Great Britain were precluded
from acquiring Hawaii either by annexa-
tion or under the guise of u protectorate.
The United States, however, are bound by
no such engagement. Urged at the time to
concur in the declaration made by England
and France, JOHN c. CALHOUN, then
Secretary of State, replied on July