Mr. Gresham to Baron Gresham.
Washington, April 18, 1895.
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 19th ultimo, inclosing a draft of an ordinance prepared by the chief justice and the president of the municipal council of Samoa, designed, should it be adopted, for the suppression of the smuggling of firearms in Samoa outside of the municipal district. The British Government, it is stated, objects to section 4 of the draft concerning the right of search, but is willing to issue proper consular regulations with regard to all the rest. Your excellency, on behalf of your Government, requests me to instruct the consul-general of the United States in Apia in the same sense.
You also mention that the United States consul-general in Apia interprets Article VII of the Berlin general act as not prohibiting the sale of ammunition to natives for sporting purposes, and that he apparently intends to allow the sale thereof to natives for such purposes. You therefore request me to call his attention especially to this point and to cause him to relinquish such intention.
In reply, I beg to say that I have carefully examined the draft prepared by the chief justice and the president of the municipal council of Samoa. In its main provisions prohibiting the importation and sale of arms and ammunition the draft does not materially differ from the Berlin act, but it contains certain ancillary provisions for insuring obedience to that act, which are not contained in the act itself.
[Page 1135]These provisions are:
- 1.
- For punishing by fine and imprisonment the importation and sale of arms and ammunition in violation of the prohibitions of the act.
- 2.
- For requiring reports to the president of the municipal council from persons dealing in or having possession of such articles as to amounts thereof and transactions in respect to the same.
- 3.
- For authority to the president of the council to search vessels and warehouses, and (on affidavit made to him) dwellings, also, for such articles suspected to be unlawfully imported, sold, or held for sale.
- 4.
- For the judicial forfeiture of such articles to the Samoan Government when ascertained to be unlawfully imported, sold, or held for sale.
- 5.
- For punishing by fine and imprisonment persons who resist search or refuse to make reports to the president of the council when required.
I do not feel authorized to issue such regulations as these, as they seem to me to require an exercise of legislative power which this Department does not possess.
It is supposed that the United States consul-general in Samoa can, under the provisions of our existing legislation, try and punish American citizens charged there with importing and selling arms and ammunition contrary to the prohibitions of the general act, and such punishment may be by fine or imprisonment, or both, in his discretion. I should have no objection to advising him in such cases to impose on guilty parties the punishment contemplated by section 6 of the draft inclosed by you.
But neither this Department nor the consul-general can require American citizens in Samoa to make reports to the president of the municipal council or to submit to his searching their premises, and of course such citizens can not be subjected to punishment for refusing to make reports or for resisting search.
As respects the interpretation which the American consul-general at Apia puts upon that provision of the general act forbidding “the sale of arms and ammunition by any foreigner to any native Samoan subject, or any other Pacific islander resident in Samoa,” I am of opinion that he is in error. He will accordingly be advised that the general act absolutely prohibits the sale of ammunition, even for sporting purposes, by American citizens to native Samoan subjects or other Pacific islanders resident in Samoa.
Accept, etc.,