Baron Ketteler to
Mr. Foster.
[Translation.]
Imperial German Legation,
Washington, October 7,
1892.
Mr. Secretary of State: Referring to your very
polite note of the 27th ultimo, relative to a difference of opinion
which has recently arisen between the consular board and the municipal
council at Apia, with regard to the appointment of returning officers
for municipal elections, I have the honor to inform you, Mr. Secretary
of State, that according to a dispatch which was received yesterday from
his excellency the chancellor of the Empire, bearing date of September
15, the same complaint of Baron Senfft von Pilsach concerning the
consular board has been received by the imperial foreign office. I have
the honor to inform you, by means of the inclosed memorandum, of the
views of the Imperial Government, as they have already been brought to
the notice of the Royal Government of Great Britain.
I avail myself, etc.,
[Translation.]
Memorandum.
The Imperial Government is of the opinion that, according to Article
v, section 3, of the Berlin general
act, the consular board should not in general defer voting upon the
resolutions adopted by the municipal council on the ground that one
or another of the consuls is awaiting instructions from his
government. Yet the consular board has repeatedly adjourned from
motives of expediency, without any objection being made by the
municipal council. In a recent ease, in which the point at issue was
the promulgation of certain punitory provisions, the municipal
council expressed its willingness to consent to such an adjournment,
which had been proposed by the imperial consul expressly in order
that he might be enabled to receive instructions. If the municipal
council, in the case now under consideration,
[Page 651]
contrarily to its previous practice,
objected to a postponment of the matter, it might have brought the
case before the chief justice for decision in the manner prescribed
in the general act. It appears, however, that the municipal council,
in this instance, also, made no objections to the settlement of the
case by the consular board. The Imperial Government therefore thinks
that no attention need be paid to the complaint. The foreign office
will, however, cheerfully take occasion to instruct the imperial
consul at Apia, confidentially, to do all in his power to the end
that matters before the consular board may in future be settled with
as little delay as possible.
Imperial German Legation,
Washington, October 7,
1892.
