I am, etc.
[Inclosure in No. 155.]
Mr. Smith to Mr.
Gresham.
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions,
Boston
Mass., March 28,
1893.
Permit me to lay before you the main facts respecting the question which
is now under diplomatic discussion between U. S. Minister Snowden and
the foreign eign minister of the Government at Madrid. In this
conference Commander H. C. Taylor is, by special arrangement, associated
with Minister Snowden as being personally familiar with the main facts
connected with the expulsion of the American missionaries from Ponapé in
the autumn of 1890 and the destruction of the mission property on the
island of Ponapé at the same time.
In the correspondence between myself and the Department of State in
previous years these facts have been very fully set forth, and I would
refer you to that correspondence for the material facts in the case.
There is also on file in the Navy Department the report submitted by
Commander Taylor to Admiral Belknap, and transmitted through Admiral
Belknap to that Department, reciting the facts as Commander Taylor found
them on his visit to Ponapé in the autumn of 1890. In a word, the
situation is summed up as follows:
When the Spanish jurisdiction over the Carolines was acknowledged by our
Government to was with the special stipulation, heartily assented to by
Spain, that the American missionaries at work in these islands should be
protected in their person and property and in the continuance of their
work upon the same conditions as they had enjoyed in previous years.
Soon after the first Spanish governor took up his residence on Ponapé he
became suspicious of Mr. Doane, the senior missionary
[Page 580]
resident there, without any sufficient
reason, and caused his arrest and deportation to Manila. After
negotiations between our country and Spain Mr. Doane was set at liberty,
freed of all the charges which had been made against him, and by the
Spanish authorities returned to his home and accustomed work on the
island of Ponapé. The claim which our Government made upon Spain for
losses incurred by Mr. Doane in connection with this injurious treatment
has been acknowledged by Spain, hut has never been paid.
In 1890 Mr. Doane, having withdrawn from the island and having died, and
Mr. Rand, the only other male missionary on the island, being absent,
the mission premises being for the time in the charge of an unmarried
American woman and an assistant, there was a new outbreak on the island.
The disturbance of three years before had been wholly a conflict between
the Spanish authorities and the natives of this island, who resented the
oppressions to which they were subjected. The same cause led at this
time to a fresh outbreak and a more serious one, and in the progress of
the fighting the Spanish forces were at length directed to obtain
possession of the houses occupied by the missionaries, and, as they
allege, were forced to destroy them for fear the natives might use them
as a place of defense. In the midst of these occurrences Mr. Rand, with
his wife, accompanied by two American women, returned to the island and
exerted himself to the utmost to effect some reconciliation between the
rebellious natives and the Spanish authorities, but without success.
Gradually the Spanish authorities turned their suspicions upon Mr. Rand,
and limited his personal liberty and the sphere of his work, and at the
time when Commander Taylor arrived Mr. Rand was virtually a prisoner of
war.
In view of all the circumstances, after somewhat extended negotiations,
Commander Taylor deemed it prudent to take all the American missionaries
on hoard his steamship and carry them to Kusaie, an island 300 miles
distant, to await the decision of the question pending between the
United States and Spain. The claim which has been made upon the Spanish
Government in view of these events is twofold: First, that the
missionary property destroyed in the course of this conflict shall be
made good; second, that our missionaries shall be permitted to return to
Ponapé and resume their work under the same conditions under which they
were laboring when the jurisdiction of Spain was established. The
Spanish authorities have endeavored to bring a charge upon our
missionaries of complicity with the natives in their rebellion, hut
without a shadow of proof, as the documents submitted by Commander
Taylor will abundantly show.
The negotiations now in progress under the care of Minister Snowden have
proceeded so far that substantially all our claims are conceded by the
Spanish Government, and it only needs that the demand be pressed firmly
to an issue, and the settlement will be made, peace will be restored,
and the dignity of our Government in the Pacific waters will be
vindicated and reestablished.
I regret to have taken so much space to set forth the situation, but it
is almost impossible in a few words to state the facts so that they
shall be understood in their hearings. I am assured of the hearty
purpose on the part of our Government to maintain the rights of American
citizens in every part of the world; and the condition of these
missionaries, few in number and far removed from their own friends,
makes a peculiar appeal to our Government to exert itself to the utmost
in their behalf. That appeal I am sure will not be made in vain, and
now, when a long course of action is at the point of a successful issue,
I venture to urge upon our State Department that it see to it that the
matter is pressed to an early and happy conclusion and that our
missionary laborers again enjoy their stipulated rights in the Caroline
Islands.
I am, etc.,
Judson Smith,
Foreign Secretary A. B. C. F.
M.
