No. 513.
Mr. Phelps
to Mr. Bayard.
Legation of
the United States,
London, March 31, 1888.
(Received April 10.)
No. 709.]
Sir: Referring to your instruction numbered 809, of
March 1, I have the honor to acquaint you that I lost no time in asking the
Marquis of Salisbury for the views of Her Majesty’s Government with respect
to the present condition of affairs at Apia, and I beg to inclose herewith a
copy of his lordship’s reply.
I have the honor to be, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 709.]
Sir J. Pauncefote
to Mr. Phelps.
Foreign
Office, March 24,
1888.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your communication of the 14th instant, in which you inform
me that the United States consul at Apia has received from the German
consul at that place a dispatch notifying him of the formal withdrawal
of Germany from the Apia municipal convention of September 2, 1879, and
you inquire whether Her Majesty’s Government have accepted the notice of
Germany’s withdrawal from the convention in question, and, if so,
whether they have instructed the British consular representative at Apia
as to the course he shall pursue with regard to the municipal property
and funds.
I have to acquaint you that in reply to a representation of the German
Government that the continuance of the municipal government of Apia had
become impracticable, Her Majesty’s ambassador at Berlin was directed,
on the 24th ultimo, to suggest its termination. No reply has yet,
however, been received to that communication from the German Government,
who have also been, asked for their views as to how the property of the
Apia municipality should be divided.
Pending a further and definite agreement between the treaty powers upon
the subject, the acting British consul in Samoa has been directed to
consider the convention of 1879 as suspended; to recognize the
jurisdiction of the Samoan Government as that of the de facto Government in the district in question; and in the
mean time to revert to the exercise of his ordinary consular
jurisdiction in Apia, as well as in the rest of the Navigator’s
Islands.
I have, etc.,
J.
Pauncefote.
(For the Marquis of
Salisbury.)
