The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-09-11

IoFty per cent, ana OF rock phoSphateS
averaging something over seventy per
cent, were found. They had been en-
gagged in this work about five days and
desired to make a camp and land four
more men so as to push the work at
different points at the same time, when
they received from Lieut.. Akinote the
following communications:
''Minimotorishlma, Japan,
August 5, 1902.
Captain A. Rosehill, Dear sir:
II do not like to write to you such
matters as follows, but I must tell you
that from my duty. 1 permitted two
gentlemen to stop on this island for
one week-that is tomorrow, and to
your crew a week on this island for
their health. Now it is the time to
please you that you and your crew will
not land on this island and two gentle
men will return to your ship, and also
you will leave this island as soon as
you possible because the people of this
island are so ignorant that they are
anxious for seeing foreigners and now
they do net do their industry.
please tell me the date on which
you will leave this island. know
little about Engnsn as you know, there
fore, there may be some impolite words
in this letter. Please excuse me If there
are such words.
Your obedient servant.
"(Signed) H. AKINOTE."
Captain Rosehill upon receipt of this
last communication informed Lieut..
Akinote that it would take several
weeks time to make a satisfactory ex-
ploration of the guano deposits of the
island and that no idea of their ek
tent or value could be obtained from
the limited amount of work he had been
able to do with three men in five days.
He asked the lieutenant what he would
consider it his right or duty to do in
the event that he Captain RosehilD
would insist upon remaining. The lieu
tenant shrugged his shoulders, glanced
significantly at the sixteen armed
marines drawn up in line and indi-
Gated that he would be compelled to en-
force the orders left with him by the
captain of the Japanese warship not
to permit the Captain and his party
to land or to remain on the island. AS
there were sixteen men beside the lieu
tenant and about nifty stalwart Jap
anese fishermen, Captain Rosehill con-
cluded that his instructions from the
company which were to yield to a
superior force, required him to depart.
So gathering wnat few samples they
had been able to obtain, the Whalen
party rejoined their vessel and she sail
ed for Honolulu stopping one day at
Midway Island and making the return
trip in twenty-eight days.
The officers of the Marcus Island
company, Col. Thomas Fitch and w.
C.. Peacock, will at once report the cir
cumStanceS with the papers to the
State Department at Washington with
a claim against the government of Ja-
pan for indemnity, and a demand that
the possession of Marcus Island be
restored. Captain Rosehill says that
the statement of Secretary Ishii that in
1896 the periodical visits of Japanese
fishermen there were turned into per-
manent occupation, is incorrect, for he
last visited the island in 1897 and at
that time it was still unoccupied.
Col Fitch says that the questions
presented for diplomatic consideration
are not many or complicated. The con-
tention of Col. Fitch is that when Cap
tain Rosehill put up the American flag
on the island in 1889 and made formal
claim in writing to it on behalf of the
United States, built a house and left
member of the crew there with year s
supply of provisions, two rights were
created one a right of sovereignty in
the United States which became per-
fected upon the Secretary of State sub
sequently filing in the Department of
State at Washington copies of the
claim of Captain Rosehill made in the
name of the Uniteu States to the ISL
and, and that this right of sovereignty
thus vested coulo not subsequently be
divested by any failure or delay on the
part of Rosehill.
The other right created by the notice
of requirement of the island was an
inchoate right which Rosehill might
have lost through neglect and that was
a matter between the United States and
Rosehill, the Unlted States having sub
sequentIy accepted as proof of the no.
tices by exacting of him bond of $780,
900 and issued him the papers which he
carried with him to Marcus Island,
fully recognizing his right, and that 1t
cannot honorably fail to protect both
the rights of its citizen and its own
sovereignty over the island; that If 1T
be possible for nation to lose terri
tory by non-user of IL, and such nom
user or abandonment should continue
for at least as long a time at would
be required by the statute of limitations
to create adverse title by possession to
real estate, and that at common law is
twenty years, there would be much in
ternational trouble. II the contention
of the japanese government that it
made formal proclamation in 1897 Of its
requirement of Marcus Island be sus-
tanned, there are hundreds of unoceu-
pied islands in the Aleutian group
which have never been occupied by
men and it could lose the title to these
by Japanese settlement and claim for
any japanese who. should choose to
occupy them.
The matter will now go to Washing
ton and there being no further use for
the Whalen she VIII be sold.