Baron Saurma to Mr. Gresham.
Washington, February 12, 1894.
Mr. Secretary of State: I had the honor to receive your excellency’s note of December 21, 1893, and immediately communicated to the Imperial Government the inquiry of the United States Government respecting the probable duration of the exile of the Samoan rebel, Mataafa, and the other rebellious chiefs detained on the Marshall Islands.
According to the reply just received from the Secretary of State, the aforesaid inquiry, in the opinion of the Imperial Government, can not, at present, in view of the uncertainty of affairs in Samoa, even be approximately answered. It will, on the contrary, be necessary to wait for a considerable time and see what will be the outcome of the state of affairs in Apia. The Imperial Government would consider it a mistake, and as incompatible with the duty of the treaty powers toward the white settlers, to permit the rebel chiefs to return before perfect tranquillity has been restored in Samoa. The advices just received from Samoa, according to which (as the United States Government has been informed) fresh disturbances threaten to break out among the natives, show, in the opinion of the Imperial Government, how dangerous it would be to allow a premature return of the exiles.
I beg leave to remark that the royal Government of Great Britain fully concurs in the above stated view of the Imperial Government relative to the duration of the exile of these chiefs.
I avail myself, etc.,