No. 277.
Mr. Evarts
to Mr. White.
Washington, November 13, 1880.
Sir: The accompanying copy of a dispatch, with its inclosures, received from the United States legation at Honolulu, under date of July [Page 446] 5, 1880, will acquaint you with the efforts being made by Chief Lebon, and seconded by the Evangelical Mission Associations of the Pacific, to check the sale of intoxicating liquors, by foreigners, to the inhabitants of the Ralik group of islands in the Marshall Archipelago.
This extensive group is understood to be under no foreign flag or protectorate, and to feel no foreign influence other than that of the resident consular officer, a German, and of the distant consular representations at Samoa and Fiji, within the jurisdiction of which the Ralik Islands seem to fall.
The ordinance of the chief, Lebon, copied as an annex to Mr. Comly’s dispatch, seems to be of a character which foreign governments have heretofore signally supported, and even assisted in enacting, in their intercourse with the simple natives of the Pacific. It prohibits the sale of intoxicating liquors by a foreigner to a native of the Ralik or other independent islands of that region, and punishes the offender by a fine of $100 for the first offense, and banishment from the group for the second. So far as the mere acquiescence of this government in the enforcement of the ordinance is concerned, nothing need be said in its favor, and the politics and humane legislation of the Ralik chief is cordially supported by us.
Something more than mere acquiescence is, however, required, and in the present want of consular representation of the United States in the Ralik group, through which to exert a visible influence in seconding the wise endeavors of Chief Lebon, this government deems it proper to call upon the good offices of the only power which is at present understood to maintain a consular post in those islands subordinate to the principal oceanian establishment at Samoa, and to express its hope that the German consular officer at Jaluit will be instructed to lend all proper aid to the native government of the Raliks for the enforcement of this proper and unfortunately necessary ordinance against all foreigners of whatever nationality who may unlawfully sell intoxicating liquors to natives.
Instructions have been sent to the United States consul at Apia, in the Samoan Islands, to obtain the co-operation of his German and British colleagues in this sense, pending the contemplated appointment of a representative of this government at Jaluit.
In communicating this request to the German Government you will see the advisability of making no official reference to the alleged complicity of the German consul, through the business house of which he is a member, in keeping up the abuse which Chief Lebon’s ordinance aims to check. You may, however, allude to it as a fact known to this Department should you have occasion to converse with the minister for foreign affairs on the subject.
I am, &c.,