Mr. Day to Mr. von Holleben.
Washington, June 25, 1898.
Excellency: I have the honor to inclose for your information a copy of a note from the British ambassador, of the 14th instant, and [Page 606] of my reply of the 25th, in relation to the pardon of Mataafa and his return to Samoa, as a means of averting threatened hostility on the part of certain other chiefs against the government of Samoa.
It will be perceived that the Government of the United States concurs in the suggestion of Her Majesty’s Government based upon the recommendation of the consular body at Apia, that Mataafa be permitted to return to Samoa upon signing the protocol inclosed by the British ambassador, promising allegiance to the King and the government of Samoa.
It is not doubted that this disposition of the case will meet the approval of His Imperial Majesty’s Government, and that proper instructions will be sent to the German consular representative at Apia to cooperate with his American and British colleagues to secure the signature of Mataafa to the proposed protocol upon which his return to Samoa is predicated.
The consul-general of the United States at Apia has been instructed in that sense.
I have, etc.,