Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-20
The Opinion is the Treaty
Should Be Amended.
MATAAFA IS FAVORED
BY Most of the Natives and 1t Would
Be a Hard Job to Capture Him
at the Present Time.

London, a 20-The Times, in a special
article this morning dealing with affairs
in Samoa, after pointing out that when
the Central American ship canal is COM
pleted the possession of Pago Page har-
Dor, in~comparably the safest in the en-
tire Pacific will become a world-import-
ant question:" says: 1.-THE decision of
Chief Justice Chambers that the Ber-
lin act disqualified Mataara must be ac-
cepted with considerable reserve, for that
act expressly reserves to the SamOans
the free right to elect their king and to
choose their form of government This
right has been solemnly recognized by the
three powers. The only obstacle to Ma
taafa's election appears to be the prom
Use wrested from him before he was per-
mitted to leave the Marshall islands, to
r%enounce participation in samoan poll
tics. This renunciation evidently owed
its origin to Germany. yet Germany now
champions Mataafa. Nobody acquainted
with the islands can be surprised that
the islanders puhold Mataafa. The aston
ishing thing about the whole business,
apart from the German vote face, is that
Great Britain should have consented,
while the throne was yet vacant, to allow
such a firebrand to be thrown among the
smouldering embers of Samoan disaffec-
ton. The part the United States have
played in the matter must be considered
in connection with President McKinley's
last message to congress-. 1t must not be
forgotten that these islands We're, so long
q 90 &C 1870 n charicha1 ohiaot in tho pNaS
of American expansionists, and even now
Samoa is a word to c%onjure with through
out many western states. The present
situation will not be devoid of benefit, if
it serves to convince the three powers
that the Berlin act requires immediate
and radical amendment, in default of
which Samoa will always be liable to be-
come the prey of civil war and a source
of anxiety to the %signatory powers. 1t
may even be, as was nearly the case ten
years ago, the theater of hostilities be-
tween two of their number.
Chicago, Jan. 19.-F. W. Pickard, a Chi
cage newspaper man, who has recently
returned from Samoa, has this to say of
the sitaution: "TIverybody at Apia knew
llLdl d DlDbuS cDlilllCl NOulu result IL lIe
court decided in favor of young Tanus,
and even the friends of the latter admit
ted freely hat he would have no show if
there was a fight. Mataafa has had a
very large majority of the natives with
him from the first-fully so per cent, I
should say-and furthermore, he is by far
the best man for king. He is intelligent,
dignified, courteous and has the years
which natives respect. Aside from the
question of eXpediency, there is no doubt
in my mind that Mataafa was rightfully
elected king. l reached this conclusion
after two months careful inquiry into the
status of the case.
THE trial itself had been a farce up to
the time I left, two days before it's close.
Very few SamOans can be relied on to
tell the truth even under oath, if the truth
would harm their cause, and the chief
justice knows this as we'll as anyone else.
The German consul has been at logger
heads with the American and British con-
suls throughout the whole affair and has
persistently refused to act with them.
He openly espOused the cause of Mataafa
and he certainly went further than con-
Suls usually do. The British and Ameri-
can cOnsuls maintained a neutral atti-
tude throughout the trial, only giving as
surance that they would protect the lives
and property of the white residents. The
dispatches say that Mataafa's army loot
ed and burned Apia; that evidently does
not mean the municipality as a whole,
but the native village of Apia. which is
Only one of several within the municipal
ity. If the power undertake to force the
chief Justices decision, they will have a
tough job. The warships there canno
land 400 men, and Mataafa's force num-
bers many thousands. The natives are
fairly we'll armed, though they have not
a great deal of ammunition. They could
withdraw a little way from the coast and
keep up the fight for months in a country
where the white soldiers would find food
very scarce and in the bush it is too dense
for effective movements. 1t would not be
so easy to subdue and capture Mataafa
as it was in 1898, for at that time he had
sent nearly all his followers to their
homes, not desiring war"