File No. 711.5914/29

Minister Egan to the Secretary of State

[Extract]
No. 867

Sir: With reference to my confidential despatch No. 833 of March 8, 1915, and to the Department’s confidential telegram No. 27 of June 14, 4 p.m., in reply thereto, I have the honor to state that I had an interview with Mr. Christian Helweg-Larsen, Governor of the Danish West Indies. He has been in the Danish service in the West Indies since 1888. He is a good type of the Danish bureaucrat, with apparently few interests outside those of his ordinary work. Strangely enough he knows little about conditions in the United States, which he has never visited except on his way to or from Europe; his present visit to Denmark is the first in four years. He is a man of cultivation, and outside of his special work in the islands his principal intellectual interest seems to be in interpreting Shakespeare. He goes to Puerto Rico whenever he has the opportunity, as the administration of affairs in that island, he says, helps him in solving problems that confront him in the islands over which he is Governor.

It was quite evident from the beginning of the interview that he belonged to the party, not very large in numbers, which desires to retain these islands, because it feels that Denmark has lost so much territory, that the surrender of any more would be a blow to the national prestige. Besides, he has, I think, a financial interest in the improvements in the harbor, which the East Asiatic Company is undertaking. He told me that he always attends the meetings of the directors in St. Thomas.

In my opinion, I said that the Danish West Indies might well belong to the United States. He said that he was glad that this was only my private opinion and not the opinion of my Government. I agreed with him that my Government had expressed no desire to be the owner of any of the Danish Islands, since 1902 when the Danish Rigsdag by one vote had defeated the motion for selling them.

I then asked his opinion of the status of the negro calling himself Hamilton Jackson, who has been speaking at various socialistic meetings in Denmark on the ill-treatment of the negroes in the Danish Islands at the hands of the officials there. He said that this negro has much less cause for complaint. than he would have under an American administration. He might then have the suffrage, to be sure, but he would be looked on only as a “nigger” and receive no social consideration.* * *

He reiterated his belief that the United States did not care to possess the islands, and that I was alone in my opinion that they could be of any value to us. He said that he has often told citizens of the islands, who desired to go under American protection, that the United States would never be so benevolent as Denmark has been. “Denmark, through motives of national pride, was willing to lose money every year in order to keep the islands, but the United States would force them to pay for themselves.” My answer was, that if [Page 593] Denmark was willing to sell, and if the citizens of the islands approved of the sale by their votes, we should no doubt find a means of making St. Thomas and Santa Cruz pay.

He disclaimed speaking for his Government, but he thinks that St. Thomas will be a place of tremendous value as a point for transshipment between the British Channel and the Panama Canal. I suggested that the harbor of St. Thomas be a fruit station for ships going southward. He said for this purpose it could have no value as the fruit steamers took a shorter route. He admitted that under this administration the cleverest and most valuable inhabitants were leaving the islands because prices for labor in the United States were much higher. He admitted that conditions in Santa Cruz were very retrograde owing to the failure of the soil and perhaps the unenergetic management; but he grew enthusiastic about the prospects of the improvements in the harbor and their effects on the prosperity of the islands when the present war should cease.

I gather that the greatest opposition to the sale of the islands would come from the East Asiatic Company and probably from the English interests in the islands should these join forces with that company. This was foreseen some time ago and an effort, unofficially, of course, was made to interest Mr. Leigh Hunt and other American capitalists in the improvements of the harbor of St. Thomas.

The Governor said that American capital would be eagerly welcomed in the islands and if some of our capitalists saw their way clear to making investments, it would strengthen our position immensely in the event of the Government’s desiring to purchase the Danish West Indies.

I have the honor to thank the Department for its encouragement in a matter which seems to me of great importance in the future of the United States.

I have [etc.]

Maurice Francis Egan