Sir Julian Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine.
Sir: In accordance with instructions which I have received from Her Majesty’s principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, I have the honor to inform you that the British land commissioner at Apia has recently reported to Her Majesty’s Government that he and his colleagues had unanimously declined to act upon a suggestion of the chief justice that an accurate map of the whole of the Navigators Islands should be taken at the expense of the commission.
This decision appears to Her Majesty’s Government to be amply justified by the terms of section 2, Article IV, of the Samoan final act, and the Marquis of Salisbury has accordingly instructed Mr. Haggard that Her Majesty’s Government concur in the view taken by the commissioners.
I have, etc.,