Mr. Gresham to Baron Saurma.
Washington, May 12, 1894.
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 1st ultimo, wherein you inclose a note from the British ambassador at Berlin relative to the payment of the expenses of the exiled Samoan chiefs, and ask the concurrence therein of this Government. It appears now that instead of the British consul at Apia [Page 709] taking the money to defray suche xpenses as was previously suggested, the British Government thinks that the “money should be provided in the first instance by the Imperial German Government, who will eventually claim one-third of the total expenditure from each of the other Governments concerned.”
The arrangement now proposed to meet the expenses of these detained chiefs seems unobjectionable to the Government of the United States.
With reference to the report of the German consul, dated Apia, January 30, 1894, concerning a possible outbreak there, and submitting with regard to this Department’s note of December 21 last as to the duration of the deported chiefs’ exile, that their premature return would not be conducive to a durable restoration of peace on the islands, I desire to state that much later information, received through the British ambassador here, indicates that his Government does not apprehend further disturbances there. It is, in fact, much more reassuring in this respect than the report of Consul Biermann.
Accept, Mr. Ambassador, etc.,