The San Francisco call., 1899-07-02
TRUE STORY OF SAMOAN AFFAIRS

. FROM the reports OF our special correspondent
E-1V~ e Williamson, the American public receives
the first full and accurate account OF the situation
the Samoan Islands and the recent events which
lied up it This story differs in many important
onl what has been sent out through the
,Assoaated Press as lead to the conclusion that
reports have been colored in the interests OF GER
parties I'M Samoa, and are, therefore, partisan
eadnes instead OF impartial statements OF the facts
:" R5, Mi MiHamsons story it is made known that
f13t action of: Justice Chambers has not been alto
tier. .irdeserving of censure that the disturbances
LIN. the islands have been due to British rather
than to German Vaccinations. and that Mataafa has
NOT been aggressive and turbulent barbarian de-
picted by. the former reports The shelng OF the ma
tive yifages appears tohaTe been=whoy unjust1habe
In fac Admiral Kautz seems to have followed the ad-
Mise Of British officers rather than that OF our own
( tI: and to have been led into which, say
.t1e*{east; are not altogether blameless.
=" .1.icIdent OF the period Of hosttes serves to
shoHtfle attitude Of some OF the British toward the
Il 4tsgess. Captaia Sturdee OF the Porpoise, who
eeis to have desired stir up strife for the purpose
of lnakin a record for himself, made trips up and
5*15i. JEp6fr and Saya shelling and burning villages
n here there were only inoffensive old women
and children, and when asked why he had destroyed
80 many Of the villages he replied, Well we were out
here IN this beasty, God-forsaken country, and we
= LAC. TO have. some fun to keep alive"
Tliat IS a type Of the kind OF allies imperial
I policy and new-found fondness for "Anglo-Saxon
nifity2 have brought It's 1t appears moreover, that
p. r7e action OF our own warships in bombardng the
rariue villages was hardly more necessary than the
aggfessive cruise of the bloodthirsy Sturdee In re
5eayng the course OF events that led up to the hos
tits our: correspondent says: ION receipt of the
adl,raI's letter Niataafa it is claimed once pre-
pared to withdraw farther down the coast but after
sfverI ofhis boats had put out to distance
TO The west APia, the warshps opened fire on
tHeIn the Philadelphia leading off The Porpoise i'm
.lnediately followed In explanation OF this Anglo
British alliance the naval said that the Mataafa
parry ere coming to attack NIulinuu, but appearances
iidicate that they going in opposite direc-
"tion. The Mataaians say that they Withdrawing
down the western coast in compliance with the ad-
niiraIFs letter and this would likely as no
can Seriously claim that half dozen rowboats full
of natives would attack three warsfps and thousand
or more armed men on shore with machine guns"
* final illustration OF the faseness OF the Associated
Press reports is given in the announcement that so
far from there being any -antagonism between the
Afaerican and the German Commissioners in the
ISLANDS, those officials acting in harmony, and it is
the British Commissioner who has been the disturb
ing: element the commission. In short the whole
cortroyersy appears to have been misrepresented
f:on the start. Now that the truth has been made
known=p =public sentiment on the subject will undergo
.radicaI change and the American people will be
more determined than ever not to be msIed by Brit
is Influence British fatery into following British
examples in dealing with the peoples OF the Pacific
slands; either in the Orient in the South Seas.