Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/283

Rh the old conundrum, 'Who is the King?' they had supplied a new one, 'What is a vice-king?

Malietoa Laupepa was a very kindly, trusting, high-minded old fellow, whose mild and gentle disposition made him an easy mark for the preliminary canters of frightfulness. His rule at most was only nominal as far as European interests were concerned. The three consuls presided over a neutral territory about the port of Apia, and acted as an advisory board for the monarch.

There had been some trouble due to petty thefts from the plantation of a German firm. This firm was presided over at the time by Captain Brandeis, an artillery officer whose warlike intentions and predilections were so sedulously concealed that he pretended to be a mere clerk in the office. The Germans had insisted upon putting the thieves in a private jail of their own, and exacting from the helpless old king satisfaction of a nature so drastic as to bring forth violent protests from the English and American consuls. The matter