Mr. Secretary of State: I had the honor to
receive your excellency’s note of December 21, 1893, relative to the
proposal of the royal Government of Great Britain to send the wife of
Mataafa, the chief who is now in exile on the Marshall Islands, and also
the wives of his followers, to join their husbands on those islands, and
I duly brought its contents to the notice of the Imperial
Government.
The imperial consul at Apia has been instructed by the Imperial
Government, which had signified its willingness to accede to this
proposal, to report on the subject, especially concerning the manner and
cost of the transportation. This report was made under date of January
3, 1894, and I have the honor to inclose a copy of it for your
excellency’s perusal.
I have the honor to inform your excelleucy that the question of
sending the wives of the Samoan prisoners to join their hushands was
raised during the conference of the consuls and of the commanders of
the war ships, on the 25th of July last, by Capt. Bickford, after an
understanding had been reached relative to the removal of the
prisoners by His Majesty’s cruiser Sperber.
Capt. Flichtenhöfer, vice-consul Blacklock, and I expressed ourselves
in opposition to this measure, while Consul Cusack-Smith made no
definite answer.
The reason that induced me, and I think also Mr. Blacklock and Capt.
Flitchenhöfer to oppose this proposition, was not that we objected
to it in principle, but was, la the first place, the consideration
that the transportation of so many women on
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board of the Sperber,
where the accommodations were very limited, would be inconvenient,
and might easily occasion trouble; and in the second place, the
thought that an additional expense to the Samoan Government would he
thereby occasioned, which, in view of the limited resources of that
Government, was a large one, and not absolutely necessary. It had at
that time not been decided that the treaty powers were to defray the
cost of the maintenance of the prisoners, and the additional expense
of the deportation of eleven women would have amounted to upwards of
$1,000 per annum, an outlay which, when the receipts of the
Government amounted to only about $10,000 or $11,000, did not seem
admissible.
During the afternoon of the same day, the consuls had a conference
with Malietoa and the Faipules, in which the latter were requested
to state their opinion with regard to the proposition of the British
commander. According to the notes which I took of this conference,
Malietoa said in reply: “Such is not our custom. If they desire,
hereafter, to have their families with them, they can send for them
by another vessel.”
There is no longer any communication by means of merchant vessels
between Samoa and the Marshall Islands. It will, however, at all
times be possible to charter a small vessel here, of about 30 tons
burden, with accommodations for, say, 30 native passengers for a
trip to Jaluit.
The price payable for such a vessel would be, perhaps, from 40 to 80
marks per day, in addition to which, board for each passenger would
cost from 1 to 2 marks per day.
Allowing, say thirty days for the voyage out and seventy-five days
for the round trip, the expense of the transportation of eleven
persons would be from 4,000 to 6,000 marks.
To His Excellency Count von
Caprivi,
Chancellor of the
Empire.
