The San Francisco call., 1898-08-22
FRANCE OFFERED
 ID AID HAWAII. Incident of the Cable
 Legislation. CALLS REPORT CONFIRMED PROMISES MADE BY A FRENCH
 COMPANY. Sought in Every Possible Way to Prevent the Granting of a Franchise to an Ameri-
 can Corporation.
CALLS REPORT CONFIRMED
PROMISES MADE BY A FRENCH
 COMPANY.
Special Correspondence of The Call.
BY HORACE WRIGHT.

HONOLULU, Aug. 10.-As far back as February II The Call published in this correspondence an item in refer ence to a proposition for a French trans Pacific cable connecting with Tahiti and Honolulu, which created a sensation in the United States and Europe and received the honor of an equivocal contradiction from persons interested in suppressing the informa- tion on behalf of rival schemes then practically pending before the Govern ments of Hawaii and America.
 In the throes of the dissolution of the Hawaiian republic and the personal unpleasantness thereby. engendered, the true secret has reluctantly oozed out in spite of the secretive manner in which it has been handled by the mori- bund Cabinet.
 It appears, from reliable authority, that The Call was correct in its state ment. The French warship Duguay Trouin at the same time that it brought the proposition for making Honolulu port of call for the steamers of the Messageries Imperiales Line brought a request to the Hawaiian Government that no special or exclusive franchise be granted to any trans-Pacific cable company until @ proposition for French cable connection with Tahiti had been fully considered by the Ha- Waiian Government, even although the United States Government had to be first considered in any negotiation for landing a foreign cable on Hawaiian 1 shores.
 |. Upon three subsequent occasions did the representative of the French Gov ernment and the promoters appear be- | fore the Executive Council and plead | his cause and Strenuously oppose the l granting of any exclusive franchise to any Hawaiian, American or foreign company. It was this opposition that l induced a section of the Cabinet and l its supporters to make so strenuous a fight in the Legislature against the ex- elusive franchise of the Pacific (Scrym- l ser) cable bill, which subsequently, won it's fight in so extraordinary and mysterious a manner as to compel ad- miration of the ability which en- gineered it and comment on the sudden docility with which votes fiocked to it.
 If I am correctly informed, there will not be found among the archives of the | Government of the republic of Hawaii a single line of documentary evidence l in the way of contracts, letters or even l pieces of conversations to mark this in- | tereSting episode of the cable fight; but this is not surprising when the se- | cretiVe SympathleS in the transaction of public affairs by the Gevehmgericht of l Hawaii become more fully appreciated. as they will be in course of time when tongues become loosened in discussing "reminiscences. It is even now intimat- ed lon the dead quiet" that France stood ready to tender diplomatic as- sistance in aid of the preservation Jf Hawaiian independence had the slight est approach to an entente cordale been made If this be so, then one can appreciate more fully the policy that l brought, upon more than one occasion during the annexation campaign, firm | but delicate pressure upon the United | States with threats of looking else
 where for political alliances, and the motive which actuated the annexation correspondents most closely allied with | the syndicates in suggesting that un- less the United States took Hawaii some other nation would
 It also explains that lingering hope,
 which even now, on the very eve of the consummation of the marriage between the greater and the lesser republic, still animates the semi-frozen breasts of the | Hawaiians-that rescue and restoration l of the national honor will yet arrive from Europe Unfortunately, perhaps no arguments on the futility of the hope can for the present prevail against that deep-rooted sentiment of the peo- ple who cOnscientiously oppose an- neXation They will drift down the tide
 of time like the Legitimists of Europe, | whose thrones know them no longer as ] occupiers, but merely as transient l oboctS of dirn1v remembered grandeur