With certain ultimate reservations, these conditions were accepted, and it was agreed that a conference should be held; but, in view of the approaching end of the Administration, the appointment of plenipotentiaries on the part of the United States was left by President Cleveland to his successor."

General act of
Berlin.

The plenipotentiaries appointed by the United States were Messrs. John A. Kasson, William Walter Phelps, and George H. Bates; by Germany, Count Herbert von Bismarck, Baron von Holstein, and Dr. Krauel; by Great Britain, Sir Edward Malet, Mr. Charles Stewart Scott, and Mr. Joseph Archer Crowe. The instructions of the American plenipotentiaries were signed by Mr. Blaine, as Secretary of State, and bore date April 11, 1889. They were comprehensive in their nature. With regard to the plan presented by Mr. Bayard in the conference of 1887 for the establishment in Samoa of an executive council to consist of the Samoan King and vice-king and three foreigners, one of whom should be nominated by each of the three treaty powers, but who should be appointed and paid by the native Government-a plan which was to be carried out through identic, yet separate and independent treaties with SamoaMr. Blaine said: "This scheme itself goes beyond the principle upon which the President desires to see our relations with the Samoan Government based, and is not in harmony with the established policy of this Government. For, if it is not a joint protectorate, to which there are such grave and obvious objections, it is hardly less than that, and does not in any event promise efficient action." The plenipotentiaries were also to propose as the basis of the conference the restoration of the status quo as it existed in 1887.'

The representatives of the three powers met in Berlin April 29, 1889. At the first conference Count Bismarck stated that Malietoa, having "expressed his regret and the earnest wish to be reconciled with the German Government," had been released and was at liberty to go wherever he pleased. This statement was received with expressions of satisfaction by the American and British delegations. At the ninth and last formal conference, June 14, 1889, there was signed what was described as the "General Act of the Conference at Berlin." The discussions in the conferences were conducted, and the protocols drawn up, in the English language. The principal features of the government planned by this treaty were a supreme court, to consist of one judge, styled chief justice of Samoa, who was to be appointed by the three treaty powers, or, if they could not agree, by the King of Sweden and Norway; a municipal government for the district of Apia, by a council whose president was to be agreed upon by the powers; a special commission for the permanent settlement of

a Confidential Executive E., 50 Cong. 2 sess.
For. Rel. 1889, 195, 198, 201.

d

For. Rel. 1889, 353. d Id. 367-368.

claims and titles to lands, and a system of revenue consisting of import and export duties, capitation and license taxes, and certain occasional duties."

The Samoan Government gave its formal adherence to the treaty,

ministration.

and it was put into operation. Difficulties were, howDifficulties in ad- ever, encountered in the administration of the new government. A part of the natives, under the lead of Mataafa, opposed the new government and disregarded its processes till, in July, 1893, civil war again broke out. The treaty powers then intervened with their naval forces to maintain Malietoa, who had returned to the islands and been reelected as King. Difficulties were also encountered in separating the jurisdiction of the supreme court and of the municipal council of Apia. The native hostilities were after a time suppressed, and Mataafa and eleven other chiefs deported. But hostilities broke out again in March, 1894, the rebels being this time under the lead of Tamasese. Under such conditions, the revenues of the islands proved to be insufficient to meet the expenses of government, and the treaty powers were obliged to make the necessary advances.

"In my last annual message I referred briefly to the unsatisfactory state of affairs in Samoa under the operation of the Berlin treaty, as signally illustrating the impolicy of entangling alliances with foreign powers, and on May 9, 1894, in response to a resolution of the Senate, I sent a special message and documents to that body on the same subject, which emphasized my previously expressed opinions. Later occurrences, the correspondence in regard to which will be laid before. Congress, further demonstrate that the Government which was devised by the three powers and forced upon the Samoans against their inveterate hostility can be maintained only by the continued presence of foreign military force and at no small sacrifice of life and treasure.

"The present Government has utterly failed to correct, if indeed it has not aggravated, the very evils it was intended to prevent. It has

a President Harrison, in his annual message of Dec. 3, 1889, expressed the hope that the treaty would result in "the permanent establishment of law and order in Samoa upon the basis of the maintenance of the rights and interests of the natives as well as of the treaty powers."

"An appalling calamity befell three of our naval vessels on duty at the Samoan Islands, in the harbor of Apia, in March last, involving the loss of four officers and forty-seven seamen, of two vessels, the Trenton and the Vandalia, and the disabling of a third, the Nipsic. Three vessels of the German navy, also in the harbor, shared with our ships the force of the hurricane and suffered even more heavily. While mourning the brave officers and men who died, facing with high resolve perils greater than those of battle, it is most gratifying to state that the credit of the American Navy for seamanship, courage, and generosity was magnificently sustained in the storm-beaten harbor of Apia." (President Harrison, Ann. Msg., Dec. 3, 1889.)

For. Rel. 1894, App. I. 511-513; S. Ex. Doc. 93, 53 Cong. 2 sess.; S. Ex. Doc. 132, 53 Cong. 2 sess.; S. Ex. Doc. 97, 53 Cong. 3 sess. As to the payment of the expenses of the banished chiefs, see For. Rel. 1896, 533, 534.

not stimulated our commerce with the islands. Our participation in its establishment against the wishes of the natives was in plain defiance of the conservative teachings and warnings of the wise and patriotic men who laid the foundations of our free institutions, and I invite an expression of the judgment of Congress on the propriety of steps being taken by this Government looking to the withdrawal from its engagements with the other powers on some reasonable terms not prejudicial to any of our existing rights."

President Cleveland, Ann. Msg., Dec. 3, 1894.

The message of May 9, 1894, above referred to, was accompanied with a report of Mr. Gresham, Secretary of State, of the same date, presenting a comprehensive survey of the relations of the United States and Samoa. Such a survey Mr. Gresham declared to be specially important, "since it is in our relations to Samoa that we have made the first departure from our traditional and well-established policy of avoiding entangling alliances with foreign powers in relation to objects remote from this hemisphere. Like all other human transactions," said Mr. Gresham, "the wisdom of that departure must be tested by its fruits. If the departure was justified, there must be some evidence of detriment suffered before its adoption, or of advantage since gained, to demonstrate the fact. If no such evidence can be found we are confronted with the serious responsibility of having, without sufficient grounds, imperiled a policy which is not only coeval with our Government, but to which may, in great measure, be ascribed the peace, the prosperity, and the moral influence of the United States. Every nation, and especially every strong nation, must sometimes be conscious of an impulse to rush into difficulties that do not concern it, except in a highly imaginary way. To restrain the indulgence of such a propensity is not only the part of wisdom, but a duty we owe to the world as an example of the strength, the moderation, and the beneficence of popular government. . .

"Soberly surveying the history of our relations with Samoa, we well may inquire what we have gained by our departure from our established policy beyond the expenses, the responsibilities, and the entanglements that have so far been its only fruits. One of the greatest difficulties in dealing with matters that lie at a distance is the fact that the imagination is no longer restrained by the contemplation of objects in their real proportions. Our experience in the case of Samoa serves to show that for our usual exemption from the consequences of this infirmity, we are indebted to the wise policy that had previously preserved us from such engagements as those embodied in the general act of Berlin, which, besides involving us in an entangling alliance, has utterly failed to correct, if indeed it has not aggravated, the very evils which it was designed to prevent." (S. Ex. Doc. 93, 53 Cong. 2 sess.; For. Rel. 1894, App. I, 504, 513.)

In his annual message of Dec. 2, 1895, President Cleveland said: "I again press this subject upon the attention of the Congress and ask for such legislative action or expression as will lead the way to our relief from obligations both irksome and unnatural.”

As to difficulties affecting the municipal council of Apia, see For. Rel. 1895, II. 1126, 1128; For. Rel. 1896, 535, 536, 543, 544, 548, 551-552; For. Rel. 1897, 449–451.

As to questions concerning the revenues, see For. Rel. 1897, 454–456.

As to the importation of arms and ammunition, see For. Rel. 1895, II. 1130, 1133-1135, 1141-1159; For. Rel. 1896, 546, 549, 551.

A question as to the jurisdiction of the municipal magistrate of Apia over offences of men-of-war's men is discussed, but not decided, in For. Rel. 1896, 552-561.

"The United States

necessarily continues to exercise all stipulated rights and duties under the tripartite general act of Berlin during the continuance of that compact, however irksome and unnatural those rights and duties may prove to be."

Mr. Olney, Sec. of State, to the President, Dec. 7, 1896, For. Rel. 1896, p. lxxx.
In a note to Baron von Thielmann, German ambassador, April 28, 1896, Mr.

Olney said: "The treaty [of June 14, 1889] is unsatisfactory to the United
States, and is one which its interests require to be essentially modified or
altogether abrogated." (For. Rel. 1896, 534–545.)

Strife over the kingship.

In April, 1898, the three consuls at Apia, having just received notice that certain rebellious chiefs had raised a separate flag at Leulumolga, decided to submit to the treaty powers the question of the return of the exiled chiefs to Samoa, as a measure likely to strengthen Malietoa's government. The suggestion was adopted."

"Malietoa Laupepa, King of Samoa, died on August 22d last. According to Article I. of the general act of Berlin 'his successor shall be duly elected according to the laws and customs of Samoa.'

66

'Arrangements having been agreed upon between the signatories of the general act for the return of Mataafa and the other exiled Samoan chiefs, they were brought from Jaluit by a German war vessel and landed at Apia on September 18th last.

"Whether the death of Malietoa and the return of his old-time rival Mataafa will add to the undesirable complications which the execution of the tripartite general act has heretofore developed remains to be seen. The efforts of this Government will, as heretofore, be addressed toward a harmonious and exact fulfillment of the terms of the international engagement to which the United States became a party in 1889."

President McKinley, Ann. Msg., Dec. 5, 1898.

The contest over the kingship gave rise to native hostilities, and these led to the forcible intervention of the foreign naval forces. In March, 1899, Lord Salisbury proposed that the treaty powers should, with a view to restore tranquillity, appoint a joint commission to undertake the provisional government of the islands. This proposal was

@For. Rel. 1899, 604–610.

For. Rel. 1896, 614-616. By a convention between the United States, Germany, and Great Britain, signed at Washington, Nov. 7, 1899, all claims of the citizens or subjects of the contracting parties "for compensation on account of losses which they allege that they have suffered in consequence of unwarranted military action, if this

accepted; but, before the arrival of the Commission, the Chief Justice, Mr. Chambers, had decided that Malietoa Tanu had been elected King, and the adherents of Mataafa had endeavored to contest his rights by force. The foreign residents were divided in sympathy between the factions, and their feelings of antagonism extended even into private life."

Joint Commission of
Treaty Powers.

The commission of the treaty powers was composed of Messrs. Bartlett Tripp, for the United States; H. Sternburg, for Germany; and C. N. E. Eliot, for Great Britain. Mr. Tripp was elected by his associates as chairman. One of the first acts of the commission was to secure the assent of the natives to the suspension of the kingship, the duties of the office being provisionally confided to the three consuls. The final report of the commissioners bears date July 18, 1899. They found that the principal sources of disorder in the group were (1) the kingship, (2) the rivalries of foreign nationalities, (3) the absence of regular government outside the municipality of Apia, and (4) the distribution of large quantities of arms among the natives in consequence of the insufficient enforcement of the customs regulations. They recommended that the office of King be permanently abolished."

... 9

Mr. Tripp also made an individual final report, dated August 7, 1899. In it he said: "We arrived in Apia on the 13th of Report of Mr. Tripp. May, 1899, making the seventh of the fleet of war vessels of the three great powers then anchored in that quiet little harbor-three English, three American, and one German but not the sail or smoke of a single vessel of commerce was to be seen there or about the coasts of these beautiful islands. On land patrolling the streets and at every crossing were soldiers, white and native, demanding the password of resident and stranger. A thousand natives in native uniform, but armed with British rifles and commanded by British officers, paraded past us in response to the salutes from vessels of war, while as many more natives, armed with every species of warlike implement, in command of native officers, came from their camps to be shown to have occurred, on the part of American, German, or British officers between the first of January last and the arrival of the Joint Commission in Samoa," were referred to His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway, as arbitrator, to be decided “in conformity with the principles of international law or considerations of equity," the three Governments agreeing jointly or severally to make good such losses, according to the award. The benefits of the convention were also extended, conditionally, to such persons, not natives of Samoa, as were under the protection of any of the three Governments but not included in the foregoing categories. It was subsequently agreed to refer to the arbitrator certain claims of French citizens. (Mr. Hill, Acting Sec. of State, to the Swedish Leg., Sept. 27, 1900, MS. Notes to Swedish Leg., VIII. 169; Mr. Hay, Sec. of State, to Count Quadt, Oct. 22, 1900, MS. Notes to German Leg., XII. 607; For. Rel. 1900, 473-476, 522-525, 625-629, 896.)

a For. Rel. 1899, 616.

bFor. Rel. 1899, 636–648. See, also, Parl. Pap., Samoa, No. 1 (1899).