Samoa Government

Chapters VII - The Problem of the Government of Samoa, 1878-81

" The three contracts had certain similarities except Pago-Pago, Saluafata or Apia. The right to set up marine bases had given the three forces a permanent foothold on the isles. The United Kingdom and Germany added another one to this provision, giving them full liberty of "trade, trading and agriculture".

" However the Samoan government was founded, it would have to draw its income from a source other than tariff. Indeed, there is little prospect of a local government being built on a solid funding base. Of the three contracts, the most complex was the German one. "A similar paper in the UK contract affirmed the UK landowners in their Samoan country.

That pledge was so ambiguous that it seemed possible that the contract could be the basis for a protectionist regime, but the United States rejected such an intent. It was not the United States that was prepared to accept such a liability, especially since it would have done without a long-standing one.

It effectively obliged the government to an interest and accountability for Samoa, but the United States government was not willing to cooperate wholeheartedly with Germany and England. Mr. Thornton said that Mr. Evart "shows great reluctance to share the government's view of Samoa with me. "The United States Consul] because he signed the City Council Foundation Agreement with his fellow Germans and Britons.

" He added that "the United States government will be very reluctant to use violence in aid of King Malietoa and even more so to cooperate with European forces in the use of violence. Although U.S. Navy ships have regularly been to Samoa, it appears that the aim was more to investigate the state of things and assist single U.S. merchants than to allow warm cooperation on any plan for the general well-being and evolution of the island commerce, and a similar abstention, which could therefore result[from a three-tier government], would be that the government's responsibility would drop on England and Germany, while the United States government would harvest the benefits in dispute if it affected individuals.

"any agreement that would otherwise have been made to protect the island by another individual power. From 1877-79, the position of the Germans in Samoa had shifted from aggressive to reconciliation and cooperation. To a certain extent, this shift mirrors the feelings of the West African government.

Samoa had a second company in Germany, von Ruge & Hedemann, started business in 1875. Commercial agreements were concluded with Samoa to prevent Germany from starting a regional colonisation strategy. It was not only the increase in commerce and navigation, but also some Germans convinced the inhabitants of other countries by their aggressiveness of the immediate view of an extensive extension of various South Sea isles to Germany.

"after the 1874 English Annexation. Second, there was the signing of trading contracts with various island on which Germany's commerce prospered. The H.I.M.S. contracts were rejected in 1875. Bismarck explicitly states this in his foreword to the Samoan Treaty: Mr Büllow told the Ambassador of France in Berlin, Mr de Sainte Vallier, "par la neécessité de defenders contre des adventuriers Californiaens les Intérêts des Nuégociants de Hambourg, installedéd à Samoa", and he further stated that it was the lack of a navy that prohibited further expansion.

On 13 June 1879, the Samoan Agreement was submitted to the Reichstag for approval. Mr Büllow insisted that Germany wanted equality of legal protection for all. "In Germany, there is no desire to establish a colony or to have a single market, only to enjoy equality of shipping and trading privileges. Godeffroy's collapse in December 1879 therefore threatens to place the majority of Germany's interests in Samoa in British hands. 6.

Not only would the plans to help the enterprise "save the Germans' commerce, but also develop Germany's interests in the South Seas. a) that the enterprise must be unreliable in order to break down at all; (b) that it was a poor politics to assist a privately-owned enterprise; (c) that it would be unjust to other commercial enterprises in Germany if the government supported one in particular; (d) that, since Germany has no fleets, this would result in litigation and wars with other states.

With the exception of the last, the argument is clearly not against a colony, but against the backing of a privately-owned company. For Samoa, the immediate significance of the law's refusal was that it became impossibility for Germany to play a greater role than its rival in the island world.

UK politics is reflected in its choice to back the Samoa government, which it suggested. It was clear in 1880 that something had to be done about Samoa. Represenatives of all three had supported him (1879). If not because of the whites, anaarchy was certainly intensified by the sales of munitions and weapons and interference in local matters.

Mayhem ruined trading and plantation and made lives and properties unsafe. Apia City Council Conventions of 2 September 1879 seemed to guarantee the independence and self-government of Apia. In 1879-81, the immediate issue was the shape this federal government was to take. a) Annexion or at least supervision by one of the Treaty powers; b) a three-tier government; c) the re-establishment and assistance of a strictly indigenous government.

Attachment was the answer suggested and endorsed by all the local government. Sir Arthur Gordon noted in November 1880 that even Zembsch and Dawson, who had previously "rejected the annexation of Samoa by England or some other power", were now in favor. "3 "3 The consul, Graves, repeated this in 1881,4 and Maudslay, in a memo he submitted to the German Federal Ministry of the Interior in 1880 after his formal association with him had ceased,5 notes with vigour the position: the "landowners" against indigenous devastation and a call for Chinese and Hindi pens, and the great lands and interests of Germans and English will be pushed as a powerful cause for overseas intervention and annexation. 6.

Seems a disaster that England or Germany cannot take over until things are so far advanced........ If Samoa is annihilated before a joint government has taken responsibility for its own financial affairs, it would have the benefit of getting into arrears. "He continues that British interests were not enough to exclude Annexion of Germany, but that the general sentiment among the locals was strong for it.

Germans, who in Samoa were intent on gaining some government oversight, had been rebuffed from the collapse of the Samoan subsidy law and realised that they could not have expected government back. Indeed, the government was not inclined to start the talks that would have led to a new adjustment of the agreements.

"The colonial office was afraid of the former, the Fiji government of the latter. "and Samoa raised concerns that Samoa's external influences would not harm Fiji's wealth. "H "H.M. government felt that it was inappropriate to discuss the issue of the attachment of Samoa to that country," which threatened Fiji's interests by the withdrawal, there was a sense that Britain owe Malietoa assistance in seeking a resolution to the issue of rule over its empire.

or the declared or fictitious annihilation by one of the great powers, either by the taking over of power or the creation of a protected state that included full oversight of the White people's business........ "So as a remedy, the attachment, defence or involvement of a particular power in the local government was ignored - not because it was not the best remedy, but because it brought the most difficulties at the moment.

That was displeased with the British State Department.