File No. 711.5914/124
Vice Consul Zabriskie to the Director of the Consular Service
St. Thomas, July 31, 1916.
Sir: I have the honor to quote below a cablegram regarding the sale question, which is dated from Washington, D. C, July 25, 1916, and published in the St. Thomas and St. Croix newspapers on the following day, as follows:
Official announcement was made at the White House today that negotiations between Denmark and the United State for the purchase of the Danish West India Islands have practically been completed for the sum of twenty-five million dollars.
Commenting on the foregoing, the Editor of the St. Thomas Tidende, of July 26, 1916, has the following to say:
The circulation of this important bit of news has, as may be expected, created quite some sensation. Coming after the persistent rumors of the renewed efforts to effect the transfer, and with what seems unusual definiteness, it is apparently regarded as settled. “Practically concluded” should be taken to mean that the high contracting parties—the Cabinets of both countries—have reached an agreement on all essential points. Ratification by the Rigsdag and Congress would be the next and final step, and that it will pass should not be doubted in view of the hairbreadth failure at the last attempt, and the alleged mutual readiness now of the one side to sell and the other to buy.
Though familiarity with this sale question has caused it to be treated with a certain flippancy and unconcern, it remains nevertheless a matter of moment. Sixty years ago the talk of Americans buying the islands was current, and pretty nearly came off. Fourteen years ago the sale failed through a single vote—that [Page 643] of an invalid member of the Landsthing who was taken from his bed to help block its passage. Will it go through this time and be consummated? The Danish Parliament meets on October 1st so we shall not have a long wait to learn whether they will in reality come under the Stars and Stripes.
The editor of the (St. Croix) West End News goes much further in his remarks on the sale question, commenting as follows in the July 29th issue of his paper:
Since the cablegram announcing the negotiations between the United States and Denmark for the transfer of the islands was received here on Wednesday, nothing further has been received. We along with most people, are inclined to believe, for several reasons, which we do not here intend to explain just now, that the transfer is going to be materialized this time. But we would rather stand by and watch the development of affairs. And we will not begin to expose who are in favor of and who are against the transfer, for some have their national reasons and others their own personal reasons. Some jumped from joy when they heard of the news, and some cried of grief. We believe that the question of the transfer is at such a stadium that it would be impossible and imprudent if Denmark should again, for the third time, break off negotiations. She would then be jeered at by all the world. On the other hand we must say that the transfer now would be an admission of Denmark’s inability to handle colonies and be declared elsewhere a “bankrupt,” but as things are at present we would rather this radical change. It will be of absolutely no avail, we can assure the population, to arrange protest-meetings, addresses, and the like; it will be only wasting time and will not be of any use.
I have [etc.]