Mr. Foster to Baron Ketteler.
Washington, October 4, 1892.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 15th ultimo relative to a proposed ordinance of the chief justice of Samoa making the registration of land titles in those islands conditional in each case on a previous survey of the land to be made at the expense of those concerned. You inform me of the intention of your Government to refuse its assent to this measure, and express the hope that the Government of the United States will acquiesce in that view.
Section 7 of Article iv of the Berlin general act directs the supreme court of Samoa to make provision for a complete registry of all valid land titles held by foreigners. It is believed that there might be some justification for requiring a preliminary survey of land the title of which is to be registered or recorded, provided such survey were necessary in any particular case for its precise description. But only valid titles are authorized to be registered, and by the terms of Article iv of the treaty the validity of every foreigner’s title to land must be established before the land commission and the supreme court. No title, therefore, can become the subject of registry until it has been approved by the commission and finally confirmed by the court. It must be presumed that a title thus established will be sufficiently definite and, if a survey had been necessary, that it would have been required by the commission. For that reason this Government, in concurrence with the Government of Germany, is disposed to refuse its assent to any general requirement making the registry of every title to land conditional upon a preliminary survey. The American consul will be instructed accordingly.
Accept, etc.,