CAROLINE ISLANDS. 



143 



gation of legal and historical evidence that led 

 to the belief that the islands were ownerless 

 territory, upon the repeated request of German 

 subjects trading in the Caroline Islands, and 

 with no intention of infringing upon prior 

 rights. The German Government expressed a 

 willingness to submit the question to arbitra- 

 tion, if necessary. 



On Aug. 31 Prince Bismarck addressed a 

 note to the Spanish Government, in which he 

 argued against the Spanish claim. German 

 merchants, he said, had settled on the islands, 

 and by their industry and sacrifices had de- 

 veloped trade and production, in the belief 

 that the islands were ownerless. They would 

 not have established themselves there if they 

 supposed that the islands stood under Spanish 

 sovereignty, because in Span- 

 ish colonies difficulties are 

 thrown in the way of foreign 

 trade. There were, he said, 

 no indications of Spanish au- 

 thority in the islands. Spain 

 had not answered the German 

 and English note, nor had she 

 exercised the sovereign rights 

 claimed at that time, nor given 

 notice, as is customary, at any 

 later date of an intention to 

 annex the islands. He closed 

 with a proposal to submit the 

 question to the arbitration of a 

 power friendly to both claim- 

 ants. In the German note, re- 

 ceived in Madrid Sept. 3, it 

 was intimated that, if Spain 

 could show that her ships had 

 de facto taken possession of 

 Yap before the arrival of the 

 German vessel, the German 

 Government, guided by the 

 rule it had uniformly upheld, 

 would abandon its claim to 

 the island. Count Hatzfeldt, 

 the German Foreign Secre- 

 tary, informed Count Benomar, Spanish minis- 

 ter at Berlin, that the instructions of the com- 

 mander of the German gunboat were not to 

 hoist the German flag if he found the Spanish 

 flag already planted in the islands. Count 

 Solms in Madrid explained that if the German 

 Government had been aware of Spanish claims 

 before dispatching the gunboat, it would have 

 put off the occupation until an understanding 

 could be reached. 



On Sept. 7 Count Solms, the German min- 

 ister at Madrid, communicated to Seflor Cano- 

 vas the intention of Germany to retire from 

 Yap pending the arrangement of the dispute. 

 The Emperor William telegraphed to King 

 Alfonso that he had no intention of trenching 

 upon Spanish rights. The publication of the 

 conversation held between Sefior Canovas and 

 Sir A. H. Layard in 1876 placed the ministry 

 in an awkward predicament. In the latter 

 part of September Sefior Canovas drew up a 



memorandum, in reply to a note from Mr. de 

 Bunsen, British charge d'affaires, recalling the 

 disavowal of sovereignty over the Caroline 

 Islands, in which he explained away the sig- 

 nificance of his former admission, and reassert- 

 ed the absolute sovereignty of Spam over the 

 whole of the Caroline Islands, while offering 

 to make commercial concessions and signifying 

 a willingness to accept the proposed mediation 

 of the Pope of Kome. 



In a note to Count Benomar, dated Sept. 

 10, the Spanish minister said that the na- 

 tives of the islands recognized Don Alfonso as 

 their sovereign, and reminded the German 

 Government of the royal order to establish 

 local authority at Yap, published in March. 

 He pointed out that the doctrine of effective 







THE KING'S HOtrsB, STBONQ'S ISLAND. 



occupation agreed to in the Berlin Conference 

 applies only to Africa. The note concluded 

 by offering to Germany free trade with the 

 Carolines and Pelews, the right to establish 

 factories and plantations, and a site for a naval 

 station in the islands. 



The Spanish Government at first rejected 

 the proposition to arbitrate, declining to admit 

 that there was any material for arbitration. 

 England and Italy offered friendly counsel to 

 Spain to accept this mode of settlement, and 

 France, Russia, and Austria-Hungary approved 

 the advice. The Spanish Government finally 

 agreed to accept the German proposal to sub- 

 mit the dispute to the Pope for his mediation 

 if the two powers were unable to come to an 

 understanding by direct negotiation. The Ger- 

 man Chancellor was willing to accept any so- 

 lution of the question of the Carolines, which 

 had placed the Spanish crown in peril, if not 

 the European peace, and led to the persona) 



