Baron von Thielmann to Mr. Olney.

[Translation.]

Mr. Secretary of State: Referring to the note of Mr. Adee, Acting Secretary of State, of July 25, 1895, No. 13, and to previous correspondence relative to the importation and sale of arms and ammunition in Samoa, I have the honor to inform your excellency that the Royal Government of Great Britain recently called the attention of the Imperial Government to the necessity of restricting the trade in dynamite in Samoa.

The Royal British Government remarked on that occasion that the ordinance of May 12, 1895, which was issued by the British consul at Apia with a view to the prevention of the trade in arms, expressly includes explosives, while the corresponding German ordinance and that which is in force in the municipal district do not include them.

The Imperial Government, in compliance with the desire of that of Great Britain, has instructed the Imperial consul at Apia to extend the consular ordinance issued by him June 12, 1895, for the prevention of the trade in arms, so that it shall embrace explosives. The trade in dynamite in Samoa will then be under consular police control, so far as German subjects are concerned, in all cases in which the more severe provisions of the law of the Empire of June 9, 1884, concerning the criminal and dangerous use of explosives, are not applicable.

The Imperial Government has also instructed the Imperial consul at Apia, agreeably to the further suggestions of the Royal Government of Great Britain, to use his influence to the end that the ordinance referred to, which was issued for the municipal district of Apia, be likewise made to embrace explosives.

[Page 1147]

In having the honor, in pursuance of instructions received, to bring the foregoing to your excellency’s notice, I beg to request, in the name of the Imperial Government, that your excellency will consider the possibility of making American citizens in Samoa amenable to provisions, as regards the importation and sale of explosives, similar to those to which German and British subjects are amenable, and that you will take proper steps to that effect.

I avail myself, etc.,

Thielmann.