The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-08-21
SAMOA ) UNHAPPY STAT.
THE PREY or MEMS wANTON
AMBITION.
Views OF the London Times Specia
bic Not Reached by the Commission

Though the plan of government foi
Samoa proposed by the Samoan Com.
mission is probably as good as any form.
of tripartite government can be, Their,
- the same inherent source of weak.
ness in it that there was in the ole
form, unless the three members of the
legislative council can be divorced from
the influence and control of their res
peCtive foreign Offices"
Such is the way John George Leigh,
special correspondent of the London
Times, who returned from Samoa by
the Alameda, summarizes the outlook
there.
THE administrator is to be appointed
from some other country than one OF
the three treaty powers, ana that is to
be commended. But the three members
of the Legislative council are to be nom
mated each respectively by a treaty
power. The legislative council is a body
of considerable power. 1t is an execu-
tive as well as a legislative council.
Each of It's members is appointed by the
foreign office of his country and will
look to that foreign office for prefer
ment and promotion. There will be eX-
actly the same temptation for him that
| there was under the old government for
the consuls, to seek to dominate, to
seek to run things, to create a state of
| his own Importance in his own country,
and at his own foreign office and be able
| so say: See what a stern man / am
| see how | have upheld the dignity and
| influence of our flag
The only way to avoid this, if there
is any way, is to divorce these men from
| their own foreign offices
THE truth has not been told about
the recent trouble in Samoa. l have
been'm every part of the group. | did
! not simply remain in Apa where only
| the official view prevails. The decision
of Chief Justice Chambers, in the first
place, was intOlerable, and though the
commission felt called on to sustain it
| to get out of one awkward delimma, it
plunged itself into another from which
| ii did its best to eXtricate itself, but
without touching the real source of diff
! ficulty.
THE position taken by the Germans
| was certainly logical one. They We're
| bound by the treaty to support the deci-
siOns of the supreme court made in ac-
| cordance with the laws and customs of
Samoa This Cecislon was so open to
| question as coming within that rule
! that they refused to help enforce it I'M
| til they had referred it to their govern
ment. The provisional government un-
der Mataafa was recognized pending
| this reference. Why it should have been
!
| had been heard from cannot be explain
! ed on any basis of humanity or reason.
/ Without any reason war was begun
| without being declared. Houses and viii
| lagos We're destroyed in wantOnness.
| Lives were sacrifie without any mo-
| tive or purpose except the determna-
| ton of Consul MaXse to make himself
| important at his own foreign office.
| Martial law was not declared in Ap'a,
but the citizens of Ap'a could not pass
| along their own streets without a pass
Admiral Kautz did not take part In
| the eStructiOn of these villages. The
| theory of imperfect ammunition gave
| him a good excuse not to.
THE excuse that was seized on for
| waking war on the Mataafa provisional
| government rs soon as the Philadelphia
arrived but before the powers had been
heard from, was Nataafa's acton in
| imposing taxes in the form of fines IN
boatmen belonging to the Malietoa fac
| ton. some of Navso's boatmen We're
| fined ana the trouble began.
The whole trouble arose from Max
SEES determination to dominate and
make Il record. He was aided i'm this by
| the weak character of Osborne who
agrees with the last man who speaks
and by Chambers, whose character is
shown by the fact that he left without
| resignng so that he can draw the sal
| airy until a successor reaches Ana,
/ though the revenues of Samoa are in
sufficient and the taxes heavy"