The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-03-13
CRACK THE NUT.

The Chinese question does not seem
quite laid at rest. Agent Brown finds
that the Hawaiian consul at Hongkong
is still issuing consular passports. Mr..
Brown cannot see how a consul Of the
Hawaiian government can issue pass
ports when the Hawaiian government
cannot issue permits. Bu. Agent Brown
might go further and ash how the la
waiian government can have. a consul
at Hongkong at ALL and Why's the Unit
ed States consul should not transact
Hawaiian business, seeing that the IIa-
waiian foreign office by the act of an
neXation was abolished, and the con-
suls of France, Great Britain and other
European countries, who are resident
in Honolulu, are accredited not to TIE
Hawaiian government but to Wash
ington.
AS a separate entity the Hawaiian
government does not exist in the Off
cial minds of Great Britain or France.
1t is merged into the United States. If
anything goes wrong with any of their
subjects here it is the United States
and not the officially non-existent Ha-
waiian government that will have to
straighten out matters and be respon-
sible. If Great Britain has no consul
accredited to the Hawaiian govern
ment, because officially it has ceased
to exist, how can the Hawaiian gov
eminent have a consul in a British col
ony?
The appointment of consul is an act
of sovereignty. But the sovereignty of
Hawaii ceased to exist on August ~,
1898, when Minister Sewall accepted
the sovereignty of Hawaii on behalf of
the President of the United States. Ha-
wall having no longer any sovereign
power, how can there be a representa-
tive at Hongkong, or anywhere else,
of what does not exist?
The state of California, or the state
of New York, cannot have a consul of
its own, with consular powers. Their
representative must be the representa-
tive of the federal government. They
can have as many unofficial people to
look after their affairs as they like,
but they cannot have an official rep
resentative in foreign country. And
what is true of California, New York
or any other state, is certainly true of
Hawaii.
We may not have our organic law,
but that is between the United States
| and ourselves. We might not have an
organic law for years. But that does
not give us any sovereign rights. For
the convenience of the United States
we may carry on our own internal af-
fairs as we have done in the past, and
we may continue the names for offices
and the functions of officers as in the
past, but this is entirely internal. To
the outside world we are a part of the
United States. When a foreign man
of war comes into this port it salutes
the stars and stripes, not the Hawa-
iian flag 1t must be plain therefore
that the so-called Hawaiian consuls in
different parts of the world are not
really consuls and have no official pow
| ers whatever.
The argument may be brought for
ward that the United States has a
consul down here and that it recogniz-
es an Hawaiian consul in San Francis
co. But what the United States for
its own convenience may do within its
own borders or what officers it may
recognize and what names it may call
them, is its own business. When it
comes to dealing with foreign coun-
tries it is quite different affair.
A representative of a country, be he
ambassador or be he consul, has his
character made known by the creden-
tials of the sovereign, or the sovereign
power, which sends him. Credentials"
says VatteI, ARE the instrument
which authorizes and establishes the
minister Cor consuD in his character
with the prince to whom they are ad-
dressed" Who has power in the Ha-
waiian Islands to issue Credentials
to any one to represent a non-existent
power in whatever capacity it may be,
in foreign country? 1t is question
| he