420 



GERMANY. 



sion. When Prince Bismarck pressed again 

 for an answer, Lord Granville, without waiting 

 for the expected memorandum of the Colonial 

 Office, proposed a mixed commission consisting 

 of an English and a German official, to exam- 

 ine the indemnity claims and submit the results 

 to their respective Governments. Count Hatz- 

 feldt telegraphed acceptance of the proposal 

 by the German Government, June 21, 1884. 



The commissioners were appointed : by the 

 German Government Dr. Krauel, consul-gen- 

 eral in Australia, and by the English Govern- 

 ment Mr. R. S. Wright. At the request of 

 Lord Granville, the German Government agreed 

 to the inquiry being conducted in London in- 

 stead of at Levuka, as proposed by the German 

 Cabinet. Although the German commissioner 

 was appointed in October, 1884, the English 

 Government had difficulty in selecting its rep- 

 resentative. The commissioners did not meet, 

 therefore, until March, 1885. They concluded 

 their labors by April 15. Four-fifths or more 

 of the German land-claims had been allowed 

 by the colonial authorities. It was only the 

 rejected claims that were considered by the 

 commissioners. Most of these Dr. Krauel 

 himself recognized as unfounded. The aggre- 

 gate sum was reduced from 140,000 to 10,- 

 620. For ten years before the cession of Fiji 

 to Great Britain, European and American 

 speculators obtained grants of land from the 

 chiefs, for the most part without the concur- 

 rence of their tribes. The English authorities 

 laid down the principle that land-titles acquired 

 without the agreement of the tribesmen were 

 void, and required purchasers to furnish proof 

 that the grants were ratified by the natives. 

 The awards of the commissioners followed this 

 doctrine. Claims for interest were disallowed. 

 The Fiji Land Commission appointed by the 

 English colonial authorities had adjudicated in 

 six years upon 1,327 cases, of which 517 were 

 granted, 390 allowed partly, 361 disallowed, 

 including 140 German claims, and the rest 

 withdrawn. Only 15 claims of Germans were 

 brought before the joint commission. The 

 award was accepted by the German Govern- 

 ment on May 16. The German commissioner 

 was intrusted with two other tasks that of 

 working out a diplomatic arrangement with re- 

 gard to the division of New Guinea (see PA- 

 PITA), and that of discussing with a represent- 

 ative of the English Government the general 

 political relations of the two powers in the 

 South Sea, and reaching a mutual understanding 

 in regard to the labor question, the importation 

 of liquor and fire-arms, the formalities to be 

 observed in taking possession of new territories, 

 etc. The British Government nominated Mr. 

 J. B. Thurston, Colonial Secretary of Fiji, to 

 confer with him on the latter subject, while 

 the negotiations with reference to Papua were 

 conducted with Sir Julian Pauncef orte, Under- 

 secretary of the Foreign Office. An agreement 

 was made between Great Britain and Germany 

 whereby the subjects of both powers are pro- 



hibited from selling spirits, arms, or powder 

 to the natives of the Pacific islands. 



The Telegraph Conference. An international- 

 conference of the states composing the Gen- 

 eral Telegraph Union met at Berlin in August. 

 Dr. von Stephan, the German Postmaster-Gen- 

 eral, laid before the conference a scheme for 

 a uniform international telegraph tariff for Eu- 

 rope. He proposed that every international 

 message should pay twenty centimes a word 

 in addition to a charge of fifty centimes, with 

 a supplementary charge not to exceed ten cen- 

 times a word for telegrams forwarded by ca- 

 ble. Sir James Anderson made a suggestion 

 to Dr. von Stephan to induce the governments 

 of the world to join in purchasing the cables 

 or guaranteeing their dividends, and thus con- 

 trol their tariff. There are twenty-six cable 

 companies, owning 98,450 miles of cables, with 

 an aggregate capital of $166,000,000. The 

 conference, which came together Aug. 10, 

 separated Sept. 17. Its decisions will go into 

 operation July 1, 1886. Paris was selected 

 for the next conference, to be held in 1890. 



In the matter of telegraph codes it was 

 agreed to reduce the number of letters in a 

 code word from fifteen to ten, and to allow 

 the words to be taken from any or all of the 

 eight admitted languages, thus conforming to 

 the regulations already established for cable 

 messages. A proposition for international tele- 

 graphic money orders, to be charged for as 

 ordinary telegrams, was approved. On the 

 question of a uniform land tariff, all the states 

 except Russia and Turkey agreed to uniform 

 terminal rates of ten centimes for the large, 

 and six and a half centimes for the minor states. 

 Russia insisted on a special arrangement, on ac- 

 count of the extent of her territory, and was 

 allowed to charge thirty centimes. Transit 

 dues were agreed upon at the rates of eight 

 centimes for large, four centimes for small 

 countries, and twenty -four centimes for Rus- 

 sia. The effect of these changes is to reduce 

 the cost of telegraphing between distant coun- 

 tries by about 40 per cent., a reduction that 

 will affect the receipts of cable companies 

 principally. The grundtaxe, or primary fixed 

 charge for every telegram in addition to the 

 rate per word, was abolished. 



Conference on Shipping Law. The Association 

 for the Reform and Codification of the Law of 

 Nations, through whose efforts the system of 

 general average now in almost universal use 

 was framed and adopted, held its twelfth con- 

 ference at Hamburg in August. The chief 

 purpose of the meeting was to settle upon a 

 form for bills of lading that could be recom- 

 mended for general adoption. The first of the 

 rules of affreightment adopted provides that 

 the ship-owner shall be responsible that his ves- 

 sel is properly equipped, manned, provisioned, 

 and fitted out. The next rule exempts him 

 from responsibility for damages resulting from 

 vis major, public enemies, civil commotions, 

 pirates, robbers, fire, explosion, bursting of boil- 



