Lord Rosebery said that he would give the matter his attention as soon as he
should receive the note which I told him I proposed addressing to him on the
subject.
I herewith inclose the copy of a note which I have to-day written to Lord
Rosebery.
[Inclosure No. 841.]
Mr. White to the
Earl of Rosebery.
Legation of the United States,
London
,
November 21,
1892
.
My Lord: I have the honor to acquaint your
lordship that the United States commercial agent at Butaritari, in the
Gilbert Islands, has reported to the Department of State that on the
11th of June last Her Majesty’s Ship Royalist,
commanded by Capt. E. H. M. Davis, Royal Navy, arrived at that port,
hoisted the British flag on the same day, and delared the island to be
under the protection of Her Britannic Majesty. The other islands of the
Gilbert group had also been previously visited and similarly declared
under British protection.
[Page 242]
I regret to add that this proceding was marked, as I stated to your
lordship at the Foreign Office on the 16th instant, by certain acts on
the part of Capt. Davis, which are in contrast with the conduct of other
agents of foreign governments when declaring under the protection of
such governments islands and territories in which the United States
maintained a representative accredited to the local authority, and my
Government feels it to be necessary, in the interests of good feeling,
to invite the artention of Her Majesty’s Government to such conduct,
with a view to a friendly understanding.
Citizens of the United States have, during the last fifty years,
established themselves in several of the islands of the Gilbert group.
Acquiring property and vested interests therein, they have won the
confidence and esteem of the natives by their exemplary dealings and by
their self-sacrificing labors as missionaries; and, supported by the
benevolent contributions of the Christian churches of the United States,
they have raised that remote island community to a stage of civilized
order alike notable and commendable.
These interests, thus firmly established, call for due recognition and
protection on the part of the United States Government, and on the 25th
of May, 1888, Mr. Adolf Rick was duly commissioned as commercial agent
of the United States for the Gilbert Islands, with residence at
Butaritari.
Capt. Davis appears to have supposed, contrary to the usage which my
Government has observed on other occasions and in other quarters, that
the acceptance by Her Majesty of a protectorate over the local rulers of
those islands annulled the relations of other governments to the latter;
and he appears to have treated the United States commercial agency as
nonexistent from the 27th of May, 1892, when his proclamation of
assumption of British protection over the Gilbert Islands was issued at
Apamama, fifteen days before he arrived at Butaritari on the 11th of
June. Mr. Rick was not lacking in courtesy to Capt. Davis, and on the
next day, June 12, sought an introduction to him through a reputable
resident of Butaritari, Mr. J. F. Luttrell; but Capt. Davis took no
notice of the introduction, although Mr. Rick’s name and office were
distinctly announced, and lie turned abruptly away. Owing to this
misunderstanding, Mr. Rick and Capt. Davis did not meet until July 6,
when the captain informed him orally that he could not recognize him as
a consular representative until he should be accredited to Her Majesty
the Queen, a statement repeated the next day in writing.
Availing himself of the usual courtesy of forwarding homebound mails by
returning war vessels, Mr. Rick, on Friday, July 8, tendered to Capt.
Davis several sealed letters and, in particular, official dispatches to
the Department of State, inclosed in the prescribed printed envelopes
supplied to consular officers for their business correspondence. Capt.
Davis demanded that the printed heading, “United States Consulate,
Butaritari,” should be erased, claiming that its appearance there was
“not courteous” on the commercial agent’s part. He however accepted the
letters the next day, without erasure. The correspondence on the subject
between Mr. Rick and Capt. Davis is inclosed.
The trivial character of this incident makes it unworthy of notice, save
as an indication of the temper in which Capt. Davis appears to have
executed the high mission confided to him. It can not for an instant be
supposed that Her Majesty’s Government could have intended to give a
naval commander the function of censorship over the official
correspondence of an officer of a friendly power with the Government he
serves; and in regard to the entire proceeding the Secretary of State
quite fails to share Capt. Davis’s views as to that which constitutes
discourtesy.
Neither is it really supposable that Capt. Davis’s powers included the
abrupt rupture and outlawry of the relations maintained by the United
States Government with the Gilbert Islanders through its deputed agent.
Had the islands been annexed to Great Britain as conquered territory,
the sudden breaking off of the representative functions of the agent of
a friendly state might perhaps have found excuse as an act of military
necessity; but in the present case it bears an unfriendly aspect which
my Government is confident that Her Majesty’s Government will hasten to
disavow.
In the course of the last few years foreign protectorates have been
asserted over territories in which the Government of the United States
had established consular representation without interruption thereof
until a new appointment required a new act of recognition. “Were the
British protectorate over the Gilbert Islands deemed to be of a
different character, involving the substitutionary credence of the
United States commercial agent forthwith to Her Britannic Majesty, this
Government would have cheerfully considered the point on due intimation
being given by Her Majesty’s Government through the regular channels;
but my Government is unable to accept the action of Capt. Davis as such
usual, timely, and friendly notice as is due from one power to another;
nor can the Secretary of State suppose Her Majesty’s Government desires
or expects that it should be so accepted.
[Page 243]
An important fact remains and should not be dwarfed by the petty details
which, to the great regret of the Secretary of State, encumber this
note.
As I have already stated, the germs of civilization were planted in the
Gilbert group by the zealous endeavors of American citizens more than a
century ago. The result of this work, carried on by American citizens
and money, has been, in fact, to change the naked barbarism of the
island natives into enlightened communities and to lay the foundation of
the trade and commerce which have given those islands importance in the,
eyes of Europe to-day. Wrought by the agents of a colonizing power, this
development would have naturally led to a paramount claim to protection,
control, or annexation, as policy might dictate. My Government has,
however, slept upon its rights to reap the benefits of the development
produced by the efforts of its citizens; but it can not forego its
inalienable privilege to protect the latter in the vested rights they
have built up by half a century of sacrifice and Christian endeavor. The
Secretary of State feels certain that no country will more readily
acknowledge our rights in this regard than Great Britain, which has so
largely shared with the United States in the work of carrying progress
and civilization to the islands of the Pacific.
I am instructed to take an early occasion to make the views of my
Government in this matter known to your lordship and to say that my
Government believes that it is entitled to expect that the rights and
interests of the American citizens established in the Gilbert Islands
will be as fully respected and confirmed under Her Majesty’s
protectorate as they could have been had the United States accepted the
office of protection not long since solicited by the rulers of those
islands.
I am furthermore to point out to your lordship the expediency and,
indeed, the necessity, in view of Capt. Davis’s strange conduct, of
continuing the consular representation of the United States in that
quarter under such superior sanction as Her Majesty’s Government may
deem fitting, by reason of the function of protection which it has
assumed.
I may add that the representation of the United States in the Gilbert
Islands takes the form of a commercial agency—an office already
established at many points in Her Majesty’s dominions.
I have, etc.,
