Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/31

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I read with entire appreciation of its friendly motive and high intelligence your letter of the 30th, and am glad to inform you that to-day Count Arco came with a note-verbale from Berlin, which he read to me to the effect that the extreme action of the German Consul at Samoa in declaring martial law in that region had been disapproved by his Government and that orders countermanding such steps had been sent by telegraph. This apparent return of Prince Bismarck to the line of the perfectly well understood agreement—that native autonomy and independence should be sustained by the three treaty Powers—leads me to be hopeful of a satisfactory adjustment by the conference to which I understood the German Government has decided to invite the United States and Great Britain, and the terms of which may be expected to be presented here in a few days.

You are perfectly correct in your diagnosis of the case—it is a mercenary clash of rival traders in the course of which Germany has allowed official action to be too freely employed in aid of private schemes. In the discussions, which are fully reported in the protocols, this became apparent, and as I told Count Arco to-day, Mr. von Alvensleben was inspired throughout by the counsel and presence here of Mr. Weber, formerly a Consular officer in Samoa, and now connected with the German Company there.

As a result our plans for a sensible and just government in Samoa were drifted away from the original basis of concurrent agreement, into a scheme which would have connected the group into a German dependency. It is, I think, unfortunate that Germany and Great Britain should decline to publish these papers, the contents of which have been discussed in the correspondence with Berlin, and which serve now only as bases for charges of “secrecy” and “suppression,” creating mystery where all should be clear as day.

To-day Count Arco intimated that he would ask the