No. 85.-Consul Cusack-Smith to the Marquess of Salisbury.— MY LORD, Samoa, May 22, 1891. I HAVE the honour to report the arrival, on the 26th April, of the President of the Municipal Council. Baron von Senfft was introduced to the King on the 27th by the Consuls, and, in accordance with your Lordship's instructions, I made a joint application to the King to appoint the Municipal President on the 5th May, and the King signed the appointment on the 6th May. The delay was caused by the American Consul-General not having received his instructions. I shall be glad of your Lordship's instructions as to the payment of the salary of the Municipal President for his first year of office. His appointment was dated the 1st February, following the precedent in the case of the Chief Justice. The Marquess of Salisbury. I have, &c., T. B. CUSACK-SMITH. No. 87.-Consul Cusack-Smith to the Marquess of Salisbury. MY LORD, (Received June 25.) Samoa, May 23, 1891. REFERRING to my despatch of the 21st May, I have the honour to inform you that the Chief Justice communicated, individually to my colleagues, the great importance he attaches to the constant presence and support of the war-ships of the three Treaty Powers. The Consuls met informally yesterday, and were absolutely unanimous in the following decisions, which, though not passed as formal Resolutions, I have numbered for facility of reference : 1. That, in view of the urgency of the request made by the Chief Justice, each Consul should urge upon his Government the necessity of a common agreement between the three Treaty Powers to maintain, in rotation for the present, except during the hurricane months, a war-ship at Apia. 2. That, upon the written request of the Chief Justice, approved by the Consuls, the war-ship on duty for the time being should convey the Chief Justice on purely peaceful visits to the various islands of the group, but that on no account ought the war ships or sailors of the Powers be used for, or mixed up in, punitive expeditions. I have therefore the honour to submit these decisions for your Lordship's approval, and in doing so I feel it my duty to say that I am influenced by the urgency of the Chief Justice's request, and the fact that he considers that the presence of a war-ship was promised to him before accepting office. I cannot myself attach the same importance to the literally constant presence of a war-ship, and personally think it would be amply sufficient if a war-ship of each Power visited Samoa once or twice a-year, remaining a fortnight or more at each visit. It would be easy to arrange that the visits of ships of different nationalities should take place in specified months. The Marquess of Salisbury. I have, &c., T. B. CUSACK-SMITH. No. 88.-Consul Cusack-Smith to the Marquess of Salisbury. MY LORD, (Received June 25.) Samoa, May 23, 1891. I HAVE the honour to report that the present position of affairs in Samoa is becoming critical. The Government possesses at present even less influence and power than the sway of the three Consuls which preceded it. The Consuls obtained a certain amount of authority from the reflected power of the nations they represented, which does not accrue to the Chief Justice and his Government. Nearly five months have elapsed, and nothing of importance has been done. The Supreme Court has not been started, no appointments have been made, no police force recruited; in fact, the natives openly defy the Government, and insubordination is steadily increasing. The Chief Justice commenced work with the new year, and the Government is still without any money whatever to meet even the vitally important and necessary duties of maintaining order and obedience. It is, as the Chief Justice owns, more than doubtful whether the capitation tax on natives for last year, now being collected, will be paid over to the Government in July as promised. Many districts have refused to pay, and at least one village has removed bodily to another island to escape taxation. The white traders throughout the group have set a good example in paying their taxes and licences, but the expense of collection has been great. I am convinced that, unless the Government can use powerful compulsion, it will be quite futile to attempt the collection of the capitation tax for 1891, which is due. Meanwhile, without funds, the Government is paralyzed, and is becoming more manifestly feeble every day in the eyes of both Samoans and foreigners. The Chief Justice confesses in confidence that unless he can have at his back a sufficient force to enable him at once to proceed resolutely and powerfully, he has but small hope of any successful working of the Berlin Treaty. I am sure that it is a necessity that he should have for two years at least a sufficiently strong force of native constabulary, nominally under Government orders, but taking their orders direct from the Chief Justice, to compel obedience to the decisions of the Supreme Court and of the Government. Slightly extended powers of independent action granted to the Chief Justice would greatly facilitate the possibility of a successful issue to the provisions of the Treaty. If the Treaty Powers would advance a small sum sufficient to really establish the Government, the repayment is absolutely certain, and the Chief Justice would be in a position to vigorously collect the taxes and proceed with the work of pacifying Samos, which has to be done before the provisions of the Treaty can be successfully applied. These suggestions which I venture to lay before your Lordship have the warm approval of the Chief Justice. I have, &c., The Marquess of Salisbury. T. B. CUSACK-SMITH No. 92.--Extract of Report from German Vice-Consul, Apia.(Communicated by Prince Pless, July 17, 1891.) (Translation.) DURING the recent visit of the British man-of-war Cordelia, the Chief Justice of Samoa requested the intervention of the English Consul to obtain a passage to Tutuila on board that vessel, in order to settle some disturbance which had broken out there, and to bring back to Apia as a punishment a number of natives who had refused to obey the orders of the Samoan Government. On Captain Grenfell refusing to grant this request, and basing his refusal on the tenour of his instructions, Herr Cedercrantz applied to the Representatives of the three Treaty Powers to obtain from their respective Governments the required instructions to the Consuls and the naval officers. Herr Cedercrantz gave the Consul to understand that he would send a written application, but afterwards desisted from his intention, and repeated his application to-day by word of mouth. As Messrs. Sewall and Cusack-Smith had already consented to the request of the Chief Justice that they should report about the matter to their Govern ments, I have thought it my duty not to hold aloof from the point Herr Cedercrantz has raised, even in its present position. As regards the matter itself, the Consular Representatives are agreed that support of the Samoan Government by vessels of war must be confined, in this case and in general, to bring the Chief Justice (and the President of the Municipal Council, as Adviser to the Government) to the spot, accompanied, if necessary, by the proper legal or other officials on board a man-of-war, and giving weight to their decisions by the presence of the latter.. Any possibility of a conflict between the Consuls would be prevented by the Samoan Government not applying only to the Consul belonging to the country represented by the ship of war, but having to obtain the consent of the two other Consuls, and the proper amount of deliberation would be imparted to the steps taken by the Samoan Government by the space of time necessary for the Representatives of the three Powers to arrive at an agreement. The principle has already been laid down in the despatch of the 12th January, 1880, that the ships of war of the three Powers should not act with a view to maintaining peace and order in Samoa except with the consent of all three Consuls, and such a combined support of this Government has several times been followed with the greatest success, as, for instance, in the case reported by Consul-General Dr. Stuebel on the 11th December, 1883, and in that mentioned in the despatch of the 9th September of last year, in which Consul General Sewall went to Savaii on board the Mohican with a mandate from the Consuls to publish a common Proclamation. The Consuls would not consider themselves empowered, without fresh instructions, to cause any landing of troops for supporting the Samoan Government, or, in fact, to sanction any military demonstrations. In my case, this would be prohibited by the terms of the despatch of the 4th April, 1889. But even an application from the Government to take Samoan police on board and land them under the protection of the guns should not be complied with, in the opinion of the Consular Representatives, without fresh directions. The Government should, in such a case, transport their police in boats or any other way. Similarly, transport of prisoners by vessels of war should be avoided, though the latter might possibly be allowed to convoy the Samoan vessels across. For my part, if a requisition of a German vessel of war were made, I should, as a general principle, take the line described by Consul-General Dr. Stuebel in his Report of the 28th March, 1891, for my guidance. The Chief Justice has stated to the Consuls that it would be a particularly valuable help to the Samoan Government if it could be arranged between the three Powers always to keep one ship of war stationed here, with the exception of the three months of the bad season. I have the honour to beg your Excellency to furnish me with instructions on both the above points, and also, in the case of the matter being settled favourably to the Samoan Government, as to what attitude should be taken up with regard to the expenses caused by the passages and keep of the Samoan officials. No. 93.-Consul Cusack-Smith to the Marquess of Salisbury.(Received July 23.) MY LORD, Apia, June 8, 1891. I HAVE the honour to remind your Lordship that in my despatch of the 23rd May I drew attention to the unsatisfactory and somewhat critical position of the Samoan Government, and I have now the honour to report that on Sunday, the 31st May, at 8 A.M., I received information that Mataafa, who was some time Vice-King, had that morning proceeded to the Roman Catholic Church in Apia at 6 A.M. to attend service, and had thence been taken down to Malié, a village some seven miles down the coast westwards, by natives in boats, for the purpose of being made King in oppos:tion to Malietoa Laupepa. As the village of Malié has, according to Samoan custom, the right of conferring the Royal title of Malietoa, the gravity of the news was greatly increased. At midday I received a letter from King Malietoa Laupepa confirming the report. I went to Mulinuu and saw the Chief Justice and the President of the Municipal Council, but obtained no information beyond the fact that a petty Chief and two policemen had been dispatched to Malié to demand the return of the prisoners. On my way home the King came out to meet me, and urged that the Consuls should assist him in this difficult matter. I replied, in Samoan, that the Samoan Government was supported by the three powerful nations, and that he need not be anxious. The return of the prisoners having been refused, the Govern ment had, on the evening of the 1st June, exhausted all its resources for securing obedience to its demands, two expeditions having returned unsuccessfully. At my suggestion the Consuls then met informally to consider the situation. We were unanimous in thinking that peace or war trembled in the balance, and that some step should be taken to calm the apprehensions of the white residents. Just at this point the Municipal President arrived, and stated |